On Christmas Eve morning, we woke up to find that our furnace had stopped working.
The house was not warm and—with the temperatures outside—it was going to get colder.
As we started calling every service provider we could think of, I found myself thinking that I had been worried about all the wrong things.
After an Advent of sickness, I had been concerned about having everyone healthy enough for Mass and family gatherings.
I had piles of gifts that needed to be organized and wrapped.
I wasn’t even sure my shopping was finished.
But none of that mattered. I had to set all those less-pressing worries aside.
We needed to figure out the heating problem. I could tell our boys to put on their coats, but our pet birds were going to get cold, and our pipes could freeze.
I texted my neighbor Kathy, who loaned us a space heater for the birds and offered to take them if they needed a temporary warm home.
Then, at my husband’s suggestion, I posted a question in the neighborhood Facebook page. I was simply looking for more companies that we could call. On Christmas Eve—and a Saturday—we were leaving voice mails but not hearing back from anyone.
Within minutes of posting, a neighbor replied on Facebook with a recommendation, and another—someone we didn’t know—was inviting us to come over to get warm. A third commenter on my post said he had direct messaged me.
I looked at my messages, and I realized that this kind neighbor was an HVAC technician. He had sent his number and asked us to call.
Within minutes, he was FaceTimeing with my husband, trying to diagnose the problem from his home. A couple hours later, he came by the house, told us what piece we needed to order, and managed to get the furnace working temporarily.
I couldn’t believe his generosity and how he shared his expertise and his time with us on Christmas Eve. It would have been so much easier for him not to respond and go on with his very full day. Instead, he came to help us and made it possible for us to stay in our house for Christmas.
As we were unwrapping gifts beside the tree the next morning, I felt so grateful that we could be home and warm and together. I’ve long given up on picture-perfect Christmases. We had to let those go out the window when the children were young. But being home for Christmas, watching our children open and start to enjoy their presents, felt like an extraordinary gift. It was absolutely perfect, just what we wanted.
It was all thanks to a neighbor who saw our plea for help, set aside his own plans for the day, and came to the rescue. During this season of giving and receiving, what a beautiful reminder that the best gift we can ever give is the gift of ourselves.
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