Tis the season...

to advertise...*
No, it is definitely not. This is the season for many things, but mostly, it is for one thing that I will explain in a story we have had for a long time.
Jake was an 11 year old orphan who lived in a small, non-profit orphanage. They had very little to eat, but there always seemed to be a little more to eat, and a little more laughing around Christmas time. But, most of all, there was the Christmas orange!
Such a prize was the most wanted thing the ten boys at the orphanage could have, and, once a year, they recieved it. The looking at it, the feeling it, and, the time when they would eat it were all treasured during Christmastime.
However, unknown to Jake, he tracked a small amount of mud through the front door. He pleaded forgiveness, but the punishment was given. Jake would not be allowed to recieve his Christmas orange.
Christmas Day was gloomy, and the other boys stayed away from him, as if they didn't want to be with someone who didn't have an orange. That night, Jake could not fall asleep. He wondered why God would let a little soul suffer so much. He cried for the stuborness of man, for the poorness of the orphanage, but mostly because he had no orange.
He felt a slight tap on his shoulder, and something was quickly thrust in his hands. He felt it, and realized it was an orange! Not a usual run-of-the-mill orange, but an orange made of the segments of the nine other highly prized oranges of the other nine boys of the orphanage.
As you read this story, I hope that you will take into your lives the notion that we must all be kind to one another. Not just during Christmas, but all throughout your life, there are people who metaphorically "Need an Orange," and you can give them an "Orange."
*Quote from Calvin and Hobbes by Bill Watterson