HICKORY HOG AND THE CHRISTMAS RASCAL, part 25

PART 25 , December 25

"Merry Christmas," said Hickory Hog to all his friends. They were all seated around his table. Spread before them were hot cups of cocoa, platters piled high with popcorn, pancakes made from potato batter, corn syrup for the top of them, turnip sauce, hash browned potatoes and fried Brussels sprouts. There was Whizzer Worm on one side of the table. Next to him was the frightened little bird. Then there was the little old man. Next to him was the Christmas Rascal.

"Well, we got a white Christmas after all, thanks to you. Hickory Hog,” began Whizzer Worm.

“Oh, no, it wasn't all me. It was partly the Christmas Rascal, too."

"But how could it be him," asked the bird, "when he was the one who was the cause of the whole trouble.”

"Well, he was a cause of trouble until I talked to him and straightened him. After I talked to him, everything was different."

"What did you tell him?" asked the little old man.

"I told him that he didn't understand the whole reason for Christmas in the first place. He thought it just had to do with things, but that's all wrong. Christmas is the birthday of baby Jesus. He was no ordinary baby. He was God's baby, the Son of God. What the Christmas Rascal never realized was that he came just for the Christmas Rascal, He didn't come for good people, but for rascals, so that they could be saved.

"Not only that, but he came so that the rest of the world could be right again. All of creation was looking and waiting for him. Nothing has ever been right since a certain, definitely evil and wicked, rascal messed things up in a garden long ago. Since that time all animals, trees, plants and creatures have looked forward to his coming."

"You mean his coming even affects a worm such as I?" asked Whizzer.

"That's right. The coming of Jesus and his later dying on the cross completed God's plan for man. Now the Christmas rascal doesn't have to be a rascal anymore.”

"That's right," confessed the Former Christmas Rascal. "From now on I'm going to be a changed rascal, I mean man."

"But what about the snow?" asked Whizzer Worm. "Why was that so important?"

"Oh, it wasn't so important, at least not as important as we thought," answered Hickory. "I saw that as soon as I talked with the Christmas Rascal and told him the reason for the coming of Jesus. It still would have been Christmas without the snow, but not without everyone knowing about Jesus, even the Christmas Rascal.”

© 1989 Kevin Don Levellie

I hope this has been a blessing to you and your family. Have a great day, and keep on serving Jesus every day!