Bobby was getting cold sitting out
in his back yard in the snow.
Bobby didn't wear boots;
he didn't like them and anyway he didn't own any.
The thin sneakers he wore had a few holes in them and
they did a poor job of keeping out the cold.

Bobby had been in his backyard
for about an hour already.
And, try as he might,
he could not come up with an idea
for his mother's Christmas gift.
He shook his head as he thought,
"This is useless,
even if I do come up with an idea,
I don't have any money to spend."

Ever since his father had passed away three years ago,
the family of five had struggled.
It wasn't because his mother didn't care, or try,
there just never seemed to be enough.
She worked nights at the hospital,
but the small wage that she was earning
could only be stretched so far.

What the family lacked in money and material things,
they more than made up for in love and family unity.
Bobby had two older and one younger sister,
who ran the household in their mother's absence.
All three of his sisters had already made
beautiful gifts for their mother.
Somehow it just wasn't fair.
Here it was Christmas Eve already,
and he had nothing.
Wiping a tear from his eye,
Bobby kicked the snow and started to walk down to the street
where the shops and stores were.
It wasn't easy being six without a father,
especially when he needed a man to talk to.

Bobby walked from shop to shop,
looking into each decorated window.
Everything seemed so beautiful and so out of reach.
It was starting to get dark and
Bobby reluctantly turned to walk home when suddenly
his eyes caught the glimmer of the setting sun's rays
reflecting off of something along the curb.
He reached down and discovered a shiny dime.

Never before has anyone felt so wealthy
as Bobby felt at that moment.
As he held his new found treasure,
a warmth spread throughout his entire body and
he walked into the first store he saw.
His excitement quickly turned cold when
salesperson after salesperson told him that
he could not buy anything with only a dime.

He saw a flower shop and
went inside to wait in line.
When the shop owner asked if he could help him,
Bobby presented the dime and asked
if he could buy one flower for his mother's Christmas gift.
The shop owner looked at Bobby and his tencent offering.
Then he put his hand on Bobby's shoulder
and said to him,
"You just wait here and
I'll see what I can do for you."

As Bobby waited,
he looked at the beautiful flowers
and even though he was a boy,
he could see why mothers and girls liked flowers.
The sound of the door closing as the last customer left,
jolted Bobby back to reality.
All alone in the shop,
Bobby began to feel lone and afraid.

This time Bobby did not hesitate,
and when the man placed the long box into hishands,
he knew it was true.
Walking out the door that the owner was holding for Bobby,
he heard the shop keeper say,
"Merry Christmas, son."

As he returned inside, the shopkeeper's wife walked out.
"Who were you talking to back there and
where are the roses you were fixing?"

Staring out the window,
and blinking the tears from his own eyes,
he replied, "A strange thing happened to me this morning.
While I was setting up things to open the shop,
I thought I heard a voice telling me to
set aside a dozen of my best roses for a special gift.
I wasn't sure at the time whether I had lost my mind or what,
but I set them aside anyway.
Then just a few minutes ago,
a little boy came into the shop and
wanted to buy a flower for his mother with one small dime.

When I looked at him, I saw myself, many years ago.
I too was a poor boy with nothing
to buy my mother a Christmas gift.
A bearded man, whom I never knew,
stopped me on the street and
told me that he wanted to give me ten dollars.
When I saw that little boy tonight,
I knew who that voice was,
and I put together a dozen of my very best roses."

The shop owner and his wife hugged each other tightly,
and as they stepped out into the bitter cold air,
they somehow didn't feel cold at all.