"‘The Son! Who will take The Son!’"
"‘The Son! Who will take The Son!’"
This being my last column before Christmas, I would like to recount the story of The Son.
A wealthy man and his son loved to collect rare works of art. They had everything in their collection, from Picasso to Raphael. They often sat together and admired the great works.
When the Vietnam war broke out, the son went to war. He was courageous, but he died in battle while rescuing another soldier. The father was notified; he grieved deeply for his son.
A month later, just before Christmas, there was a knock on the door. A young man stood with a large package on his hands. He said to the old man: “Sir, you don’t know me, but I am the soldier your son saved. He often talked about you and your love of art. I know this is not much, and I am not really a great artist, but I think your son would have wanted you to have this.”
The father opened the package. It was a portrait of his son done by the young man. He stared at it in awe because the painting captured the personality of his son. His eyes filled with tears. He thanked the young man and offered to pay for the portrait.
“Why, no sir,” the soldier said. “I could never repay your son for what he did for me. It’s a gift.”
The father hung the portrait on his mantle. Every time visitors came, he took them to see the portrait of his son before he showed them the great works in his collection.
The old man died a few months later.
There was to be a great auction of his paintings. The auctioneer pounded on his gavel. “We will start the bidding with the portrait of the son. Who will bid for this painting?” There was silence.
A voice at the back shouted: “Skip this one. We want to see the famous paintings.”
The auctioneer persisted. “Will someone bid for this painting? Who wants to start?”
Another voice angrily shouted, “We didn’t come to see this portrait. We came for the Van Goghs and the Rembrandts. Get on with the real bidding!”
The auctioneer continued: “Who will take the son?”
Finally, a man said: “I will give $10 for the portrait. It’s all I have.”
The man was the long-time gardener of the house. “Who wants to bid against this man? Twenty dollars, anyone?” the auctioneer shouted.
“Give it to that old man and continue with the other works!” the people shouted.
“I’m sorry, the auction is over,” the auctioneer announced.
There was a secret stipulation in the will. Whoever buys the portrait of the son would inherit the entire estate, including the art collection. The man who buys the portrait of the son gets everything.
God the Father gave us his son, Jesus Christ. And the message this Christmas is, “The Son! Who will take the son?”
With this, I wish everyone a merry Christmas.
* * *
I remember my first Christmas with my wife, who was then heavy with our oldest child.
My resourceful wife went to the grocery store on California Street in Malate to buy accessories, She made Christmas décor out of them and the tree was a hit among our neighbors.
We had nowhere to go that evening, so we went to Luneta to see the fireworks. We took the jeepney but after the fireworks, we could not find a ride.
Somebody noticed that she was pregnant, so he asked us where we lived and offered to bring us home in his jeep.
When we arrived home, we did not have noche buena. I was earning P250/month and our rent was P150. Fortunately her uncle gave us some food.
What angels, indeed! This was our memorable first Christmas.
* * *
My wife and daughter stopped going to Divisoria years ago. They could not stand the crowd and the risk of falling victim to snatchers.
But you can find everything in Divisoria for low prices. A friend of mine says these were smuggled from Divisoria.
This season, we are avoiding going to the malls altogether. The traffic is just crazy! I expect this to continue until Christmas Day, after which traffic would be smooth and easy in Metro Manila.
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