Here’s a beautiful Christmas story from the popular author Taylor Caldwell–it comes from an article my beloved mother Dorothy passed onto me many years ago. I hope you enjoy it!

Taylor Caldwell’s ” Christmas miracle” began in the 1920s on a rainy spring day. Recently divorced and with her little daughter Peggy to support, with no money and no job, she took a streetcar to look for work. She sat down and saw a beautiful silk umbrella with a silver-and-gold handle and a name engraved on it. She took it with her and found the owner in a telephone book. A lady answered, overjoyed. The lovely umbrella had been a birthday gift from her parents. She was a teacher and it had been stolen from her school locker more than a year ago. When Taylor returned the umbrella to her, the woman offered her a reward. Taylor had only $20 to her name, but she felt seeing the woman’s joy was reward enough. Before she left, Taylor gave the woman her address–but forgot all about it.

The next six months were desperate. The day before Christmas, her $30 rent was due and she had only $15. On Christmas Eve, she struggled home through snowdrifts and reached the lowest point in her life. Soon, she and her little girl would be homeless. She had prayed for help for weeks, but felt both God and man had forgotten her. In her mailbox, along with bills, she found two white envelopes. She climbed to her tiny apartment where her daughter waited. 

The doorbell rang. It was a delivery man, his arms full of packages. Inside were a huge doll, gloves, candy, and a lovely leather purse. They were gifts from the lady she’d returned the umbrella to, who had sent them all the way to London from California. Amazed and grateful, Taylor forgot she had no rent money and no job. She and Peggy laughed and decorated their Christmas tree. Later, she opened the two envelopes. Inside one was a check for $30–her rent! The other? A job offer from a government agency. Church bells began to ring and outside, someone began seeing, “Come All Ye Faithful.”

“We are never alone. Not when the night is darkest, the wind coldest…” That’s the lesson Taylor Caldwell later wrote she learned one Christmas many years ago when she had no job and no hope.

What a beautiful gift this story is to us all! Stories shine! Write on!

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