The Story Of The Child Jesus And The Shoes

The Story of the Child Jesus and the Shoes

Many years ago, a little boy named John, lived with his Aunt Sophie, in a house, in the Pyrenees Mountains, in France. He was seven years old, and he could not remember that he had ever seen his mother and father. Actually they had died when he was only a baby, and that's why he could not remember them.

Aunt Sophie was always very selfish and cross. She gave John dry bread to eat, and there was never enough of it, so the poor boy often went hungry. John did his best to please her but no matter how hard he tried, he could never succeed, and his aunt would remain as grouchy as ever. She would always scold him and rarely did she say anything nice to him.

John's aunt had a stocking full of gold coins under her bed, but she was greedy, and she wanted to have as much money as she could. She would hardly spend a penny on herself or John, and to save money, she made little John carry in all the wood for the fire place, instead of hiring somebody.

When John went to school, some of the school children were unkind to him because he was not dressed as well as they were. They would not play with him, and they tried to blame him for all that went wrong at the school. The little fellow was often very sad, and sometimes he hid himself, where he could not be seen, and cried as though his heart would break!

When winter set in, it was very cold and there was much snow on the ground. So the boys came to school with fur caps drawn down over their ears, heavy coats, warm mitts and thick leather boots. But poor little John had no warm clothes. He came to school shivering in his thin coat, which he wore on Sundays, in the summer. And on his feet were coarse stockings which were full of holes, and a pair of heavy wooden shoes. The other boys made jokes about his worn-out clothes, but little John was so busy blowing on his fingers and stamping his feet to keep them warm, that he did not hear what was said.

One good thing about winter, was that Christmas came during that period and for John, it was always a happy time, because then he knew that he would be in for a little treat.

Christmas Eve finally came around and after school, on that day, the boys talked about all the nice things they were going to do at home on Christmas Day. Pierre, the mayor's son, spoke up, "Before I left home, I saw a huge goose in the kitchen. My family and I will probably be eating it for three days, before it gets finished. And to top it off, we will have chestnut dressing, carrots, potatoes, beans, cookies and cakes, and a fruit pie with sweet cream!"

And Paul said, "There's a little fir tree in my mother's parlour and its branches are full of fruits and nuts, and candy, and beautiful toys.

"You should see what we have in our house," put in Andre. "We have a Christmas tree that's seven feet high, and for Christmas, we're going to have a roasted pig with an apple in its mouth; and the pig is bigger than me!"

Then the boys talked about what St. Nicholas would bring them and what he would put in their shoes, which of course they would leave by the fire place, before they went to bed. And the boy's eyes danced with joy, as they thought of the candy, the oranges and apples, the nuts, the lead soldiers and the jumping jacks they would pull out of their shoes in the morning.

Little John said nothing; he knew that his Aunt Sophie would send him to bed without any supper, as she always did. But he knew that he would be filled with joy when he was in church and could look at the beautiful Nativity Set and the candles, and could smell the sweet incense, and listen to the beautiful Christmas music. However, at the same time, he hoped that kind St. Nicholas would not forget him, nor fail to put something in his wooden shoes. For he would be sure to leave them near the fire place, before going to bed.

That Christmas Eve, all the boys went back to school and at 11:00, the schoolmaster led them to the church for Midnight Mass. As they entered, the church, hundreds of wax candles were burning, and the air was so warm, that little John soon forgot his aching fingers. The boys each said a little prayer, then they looked at the Nativity Set and all the beautiful Christmas decorations. Before long someone started to play the organ, and with the choir, all the boys sang beautiful Christmas carols. When Mass started, the schoolmaster watched over his boys like a hawk, seeing that they followed Mass carefully.

When Mass was over, all the boys went to meet their parents or guardians, and set out for home with them. That is, all except little John. His aunt was not there; she had stopped going to church years ago, but nobody knew why. Before John left the churchyard, he turned toward the church and prayed, "Thank you, Jesus and Mary, for giving me the Catholic Faith and thank you for the beautiful church and the lovely Mass." Then, just as he was about to leave, he noticed a little boy sitting on the cold, side steps of the church. No one else had noticed him, as they were all going about their business.

Little John went over to see the boy. He was shivering from the cold and was dressed in ragged clothes. John had never seen this boy before. In the pale light of the moon, John could see that the boy was crying, and he felt sorry for the boy. He noticed that there was a strange sweetness in the boy's eyes and he was very touched by this. The boy's blond hair shone like gold in the moonlight and upon his feet, there were no shoes! The little child's bare feet were blue with the cold; it was a sad sight indeed!

For a moment, John was stuck for words. He started crying at the sight of the poor child and then he said, "Ah, you poor child! How sad it is that you must go barefoot in this cold winter weather. And worse still, you have no shoes to put out, so that kind St. Nicholas can fill them with little treats," and he gave the little boy a hug. Then John did a very brave thing, he took off his shoes and gave them to the little child.

The child beamed with joy. He jumped up and gave John a hug saying, "Thank you very much. It was so good of you to give me your shoes. May God and St. Nicholas bless you for your kind heart."

John said goodbye to the little child and was on his way. He was shivering, and his feet became blue with the cold, but he didn't mind, because he had given his shoes away for the love of God. When he arrived at home, his aunt screamed at him, "Where have you been you worthless child, and what have you done with your shoes?"

Little John trembled with fear, in his cold wet socks, "I gave my shoes to a little child at the church, who was poorer than me. I thought that it was the right thing for me to do, as his feet were blue with cold!"

Aunt Sophie laughed a wicked laugh, "So you give your shoes away to poor beggars! Don't expect me to give you any fruit for your Christmas dinner tomorrow. You will get nothing but a dry crust of black bread and a glass of water. And if you so much as dare to ask me for any more, I will give you a good beating with a stick! That will teach you to give away your shoes to the first beggar that comes along!"

The wicked aunt dealt the boy a hard blow and made him climb up to his bed in the attic. Crying and in pain, little John lay on his hard bed. He did not go to sleep until many hours later – it had been an eventful day for him.

In the morning, when Aunt Sophie walked into the kitchen, she screamed and stood as stiff as a board with fright, "Who's been in my house? Who's been in my house?" The scream awoke little John and he came running downstairs to see what was the matter.

A wonderful sight met their eyes – the fire was burning brightly and the table was covered with a beautiful tablecloth. There were beautiful toys, bags of candies and nuts, and a huge basket of fruit on the table! As well, there were two pairs of socks, a pair of pants and a shirt, a winter coat, a fur hat and a warm pair of leather mittens! Pretty packages were all tied up with fancy paper and bows, and on top of all of these things, were John's old wooden shoes!

For a moment, Aunt Sophie and John just stared in wonder. But then a wonderful thing happened – the Child Jesus suddenly appeared. He frowned at Aunt Sophie and then smiled at John, saying, "John, I am the Child Jesus. You gave me your shoes last night to keep my feet warm, and also, so that I could put them out for St. Nicholas." At this moment the old aunt fell to her knees and burst into tears – she realized how wrong she had been to ill treat little John in the past years.

Then the Child Jesus disappeared and Aunt Sophie gave John a hug. "Oh John," she sobbed, "I was wrong to treat you the way I did. From now on I am going to treat you better and I am going to go to church with you. She then ran to get her bag of gold under the bed and gave John five gold pieces. "Here John," she said, as she pressed the gold pieces into John's little hand, "this is so that you can buy yourself some more clothes, because it's no use having just one new set of clothes to wear, is it?" Then she hugged John and gave him a kiss. John smiled, "Oh Aunty! Thank you so much for being my Aunty," and he hugged her and kissed her as well. The old aunt was a changed woman. From then on she was more like an angel than a woman and everyone loved her – most of all, little John!

The End

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