Christmas Visitor — David Saperstein

Sometimes when things are at their worst, a single star pierces the sky, shedding its light like an unexpected blessing, a beacon of hope...

George Boyajian dreads the approach of yet another Christmas--the twelfth he and his wife will endure since losing their son John in the Gulf War. The news came on Christmas Eve. Since then, the holiday has held only heartache for those John left behind.

Determined to lift some of the gloom from the season, George sets out to bring Christmas back, sending out cards, making plans, getting the old decorations down from the attic. Then, heading into town on a tree-buying mission, he stops to pick up a quiet young man in need of a ride--a Gulf War veteran about the same age as John would now be. Drawn to the stranger, George invites him home, risking the rest of the family's anger and dismay.

But what happens instead is astounding. The presence of this somehow-familiar soldier is like a spring thaw, and as he listens, the Boyajians talk--for the first time--about what John meant to each of them, slowly breaking down walls of grief that had seemed impenetrable. This holiday, an ordinary family is about to experience a true miracle--courtesy of...