A  TALE  of  HOPE  and  SALVATION

One evening in the month of November a stranger rode into town. He stopped his horse in front of a lonely storefront. The windows were boarded shut and the door was locked fast. But the man looked at it, smiled, and said, “It will do.”
All through the gray short days and the long dark nights of November, the man worked. The town's people could hear the faint sound of his hammer and his saw. They could smell the sweet clean scent of new lumber and the deep oily smell of new paint. But no one knew who the man was or what he was doing. No one spoke to the man. No one asked if he needed help. They just waited. And watched. And wondered. And wished.                              

But one small girl watched and wondered, waited and wished longer than she could stand. 
And one snowy day she knocked at the stranger’s door. “Hello,” she said. “My name is Lucy. Do you need some help?” The man smiled warmly and nodded. Then he opened the door, and Lucy stepped inside. A long counter ran down the side of the room. Bare shelved filled the opposite walls. In the back were dozens and dozens of barrels and crates.
“Could you help me unpack?” the man asked.  She removed her dripping boots and hung her coat on a peg. On stocking feet, she crossed the rough wooden floor and knelt beside a crate.  “Please. Open it,” the man urged. Slowly, Lucy put her hand into the box and pulled out a glass jar. “Now,” the man said, “for something to put inside.” And he pulled over a huge crate stamped with a strange word. As Lucy unpacked, her eyes lit up.  It was candy. Her favourite candy. Gumdrops! She popped one in her mouth. The chewy texture made the experience last, and the taste was so delightful it brought a smile to her face.
“We children of the town  wished for a candy store,” Lucy said.  “Yes, I know”, said the man. “And here it is. Welcome to Sonneman’s Candy Store. I am John Sonneman”.   Soon the small store was filled with candies, gleaming in their glass jars. Then, in the very last package in the very last crate, was a candy Lucy had never seen before, a red-and-white striped candy stick with a crook on the end.

“What is this?” Lucy asked.  “This,” Mr. Sonneman explained, “is a candy cane. It is a very special Christmas candy.” “Why?” Lucy asked.

“Tell me,” Mr. Sonneman said, “what letter does it look like?” Lucy took the candy and turned it in her hand.  “J!” she said.
The ''J'' shape of the candy cane is said to represent the name of Jesus. The solid texture or hardness of the candy cane is said to symbolize the solid rock foundation of the Church. The peppermint flavour is supposed to stem from an herb called hyssop. In the Old Testament hyssop was used to symbolize the purity of Jesus and the sacrifice he made. The crook shape is said to symbolize a shepherd's crook. But Mr. Sonneman, what are the stripes for?” Lucy asked. The man’s eyes grew sad. “The prophet Isaiah said, ‘By his stripes we are healed.’ Before he died on the cross, Jesus was whipped. He bled terribly. The red reminds us of his sufferings and his blood. The three fine stripes are believed to represent the Holy Trinity. 
 “But then,” Mr. Sonneman continued, “the candy is white as well. When we give our lives to Jesus, his blood washes away our sins, making us white and pure as snow.”
“That,” he said, “is the story of the candy cane.”
“Is it a secret?” Lucy asked.   Mr. Sonneman looked at her for a long moment, “It’s a story that needs to be told,” he said. “Will you help me share it?”  It was now the depths of December. The town was whipped round by blizzard winds. For days, the sun hid itself.
But every morning, Mr. Sonneman and Lucy ventured out. They wore heavy woollen coats and bright hand knit scarves. And in their stiff, mittened fingers they each held a bag.
They went to every house is town. They travelled to every farm in the country. They knocked on every door. In every home, they told the story, they left a small gift, and they give an invitation. On the afternoon of Christmas Eve, the sun finally broke through the clouds, and Sonneman’s Candy Store officially opened.
The whole town had come to share in the opening of the candy store. But they shared something more. Something bigger. Something better.
On that Christmas Eve, they shared the story of the candy cane. They told of the miracle of Christ’s birth. The misery of his death. And the mercy of his sacrificial love. That Christmas Eve, the townspeople discovered that the greatest gift was not in the treats they received, but in the shared experience of Christ’s love, and faith in salvation.

OPEN YOUR HEARTS TO EMBRACE CHRIST'S INDESCRIBABLE GIFT OF SALVATION THIS CHRISTMAS SEASON