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When we left home to go celebrate Christmas with our extended family in Berlin, we had no idea that we would experience a real adrenaline rush just before the celebration. While waiting at a local suburban train station with all our bags full of gifts, Wolfgang put his laptop in its black bag on a black bench in the dark evening hours (not a good idea!). Since we had time until the train was coming, he distributed Christmas tracts to different people on the platform.

After we had boarded the train – about three stops later – Wolfgang realized that he had left his laptop at the train station. We quickly got off the train and went back, praying desperately for God’s mercy as it wasn’t just his laptop at stake, but all his work, contacts, programs etc. including special Christmas mailings we had just prepared. That evening we were about to celebrate Christmas with our family and this would be a major mood dumper for all of us.

When we arrived at our original train stop, about 30 min later, the bench was empty and the laptop was gone. Ouch – our hearts sank! To not leave any stone unturned, we searched everywhere. Finally, Wolfgang went back to the little shop where we had bought our tickets and the seller told him, the only chance would be to ask the homeless people at the platform downstairs who might know something.

He went down and saw two of them talking quite lively about something. It seemed useless to talk to them. Yet he went to them anyway, and as soon as he asked them about his lost laptop, they immediately said, “So, it is yours!” Wolfgang could hardly believe that they were serious. They had found his laptop and told him they had searched the bag for an address or a phone number and could not find any.

They wanted to turn it in to the lost-and-found office the next morning and were happy that they could return it to Wolfgang personally. He thanked them profusely for their honesty and offered to pray with them to get to know Jesus which they gladly accepted. One of them – Mohamed from Tunisia – said he had goosebumps when saying the prayer and gave Wolfgang a big hug afterwards. We gave them tracts and all the money we had on us for which they were super thankful (even though it wasn’t much). We learned that they sleep in a car which their friend had left open for them and we were happy that we could give them a special Christmas present.

This was our personal Christmas miracle and we thank God and His homeless Christmas “angels” – Sven and Mohamed – for saving our Christmas season!

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Christmas is the spirit of giving without a thought of getting. It is happiness because we see joy in people. It is forgetting self and finding time for others and the true values in life. – Thomas S. Monson

I think back to the shepherds watching their sheep on the outskirts of Bethlehem on the night Jesus was born. They were probably cold, hungry, and uncomfortable. They probably didn’t feel like they had much going for them, professionally and otherwise. But as the angel appeared to them heralding the good news of Jesus’ birth, followed by the sky filling with choirs of angels, I bet they felt love, hope, joy, and excitement that transformed the drudgery of their lives. – Marie Alvero

We pray that your life will be filled with God’s Spirit this Christmas and that His many wonderful blessings will be yours in the coming year. – Lenka & Wolfgang Schmidt