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back to you what you—five years ago—gave to me. I have held on too tightly, Lord, forgotten that this precious
     gift was never really mine. I let another child take the place of the one that lay in a hay-filled manger that cold night
     in Bethlehem. And now love has all but died in our home. I’m sorry, Lord. I’ve tried to make her something other than what
     you made her, but no more. I’ll love her always, but I understand now that she doesn’t belong to me. She belongs to you. Now
     and forevermore.”
    Steve unwrapped the tissue paper and there inside lay a single small picture of Jessica.
    Steve heard something and turned. With Jessica perched on her hip, Cindy was watching him from the doorway. Her eyes glistened
     with unshed tears and Steve went to her, hugging her tightly as Jessica wrapped her arms around them both.
    “We can’t throw it all away. Not when we haven’t even tried,” he whispered. “I’m ready to work with you, Cindy.”
    She nodded, choking back a sob. “All my efforts and all your denial and we almost missed the truth,” she said. “When she put
     Molly at Jesus’ feet ...Steve, she’s perfect just the way she is. She loves more perfectly than either of us ever have. She
     reminded me of all God has done for me, for all of us.”
    “That’s her Christmas gift to us, right, sweetheart?” Steve lifted Jessica’s chin and kissed her forehead.
    Jessica nodded and grinned, first at her daddy and then at the tiny statue of baby Jesus in the nativity scene. She did not
     understand everything that had happened between her parents and the Lord that Christmas. Only that the town of Cottonwood
     felt a little like heaven that week because her prayers had been answered. The preacher had been right.
    Love really was the best Christmas miracle of all.

A Touch of
Heaven
    N ewly married and fresh out of Bible college, Ashley and Bill Larson began making plans to be missionaries in Africa. They
     spent that next year taking training courses on the African diet, socialization process, and other important details that
     would aid them in their four-year stint on another continent.
    When they had nearly completed their education and had already been assigned to a village in a remote tribal area, Bill had
     an idea. He had been trained in Bible education and knew well the message he and Ashley would present to the tribal people.
     But he had never studied the power of healing through prayer.
    “I think I’m going to take that course,” Bill told his wife one afternoon.
    Ashley nodded and shrugged her shoulders. “Why not?”
    The two discussed the course, and Ashley, pregnant with their first child, decided she would not have time for the additional
     work. But Bill was intrigued. If he was going to tell the people about God’s love, then he’d better be prepared to tell them
     about his healing power as well.
    Although raised in the Christian church and well versed in scripture, Bill had never thought much of the preachers who did
     healing demonstrations. Many of them had proved to be frauds over the years. Even worse, a number had been swindlers who only
     performed trickery in exchange for donations. And so to consider the true healing nature of God was a new idea for Bill.
    He began the class at about the same time that Ashley visited a doctor for what had become a persistent lower and middle back
     pain.
    “I’m afraid I have bad news for you, Mrs. Larson,” the doctor told her as the two sat in his office after her examination.
     “The X rays show that you’re suffering from the early stages of scoliosis.”
    The doctor went on to explain that scoliosis was a disease that caused the spine to begin to curve unnaturally, forcing the
     body to become severely hunched and causing excruciating pain in its victims. When the disease occurs in children, it can
     be managed with a series of braces since the child’s skeletal frame is still growing. However, when it strikes an adult,