THE BLUE GUITAR | A True Christmas Miracle Story
Rhonda asking Santa for blue guitar with childlike faith - Christmas miracle testimony
My sweet friend Rhonda believed that God was a God who made wishes come true.
"What do you want for Christmas, young lady?" Santa asked the 47-year-old woman with the faith of a child sitting on his knee.
"A guitar," she replied without hesitation. "A blue one."
With little time left to shop, Rhonda’s parents scoured every music store in Michigan, coming up empty-handed. They were a little worried, but Rhonda wasn’t.
After stating her case, she never gave it another thought. Santa always delivered.
Rhonda’s Bible said, “Ask and it will be given to you.” So like praying to Jesus, she knew the answer would come.
But what if you asked and the answer never arrives?
That’s where my husband Chuck found himself years before in another town, another life, knocking on doors, hoping to find the answer his dying sister was looking for.
When he didn’t find what she needed, he began looking for a guitar. His songs made her smile, and that was all he could offer.
He wandered in and out of antique stores in their Ohio hometown, feeling more hopeless as the signs in the windows flipped from OPEN to CLOSED for the holidays. When he reached the last shop on the dusky street, he pulled the door open with one final SOS prayer.
“Jesus, please?”
That’s when he spotted the dusty instrument buried underneath a workbench.
It wasn’t the kind of guitar he was used to playing, but it would have to do. There was little time left to make wishes and prayers come true.
Chuck strummed that old guitar for Mary until his fingers and heart were raw. Then brought it home after her funeral, slid it under the guest bed, and shut the door.
Multiple guitars hung on the wall, but he didn’t feel like playing much anymore.
A year later, I went on a quest to downsize our life.
We had too much.
Too much stuff. Too much clutter. Too much grief and way too many guitars in my opinion.
“Can we let this one go?" I held up the Ohio guitar.
Chuck ran his fingers along the strings. "Mind if we keep it a little longer?"
Who was I to say “no” to someone else’s dream?
The holidays came and went. Every time I’d bring it up, the answer never changed.
But one Christmas Eve, I was hiding a stash of presents under the guest bed when I bumped into the dusty guitar again.
We needed space to breathe, to stretch our faith, to find room to hope again.
“Honey?” Chuck entered the room, saw the protruding guitar, and nodded, tears in his eyes.
It was time to let it go.
”I'm running late for coffee with Dean, but I’ll take it to Goodwill afterwards. Maybe there's someone who needs it.”
Chuck and his friend were throwing their coffee cups away when Chuck thought to ask about Dean’s little sister.
"Hey, how's Rhonda doing?"
Dean laughed, ”You don't happen to know where to find a guitar at this hour, do you? She asked Santa for one last night, and we’re scrambling. Not sure what to do.”
We’re not always sure what to do. Yet the Bible says that there will come a day when we’ll have all the answers.
"What no one ever saw or heard, what no one ever thought could happen, is the very thing God prepared for those who love Him." (1 Corinthians 2:9)
Even now, God pulls back the curtain to let us peek at all the things we don’t fully understand.
Chuck’s eyes and heart began to twinkle.
"A guitar, huh? I happen to have an extra in my truck.”
Before he opened the tailgate, he wanted to make sure his friend wouldn’t be too disappointed.
“Ya’ think Rhonda will mind if it’s blue?”
(This true story is dedicated in loving memory to my friend, Rhonda Armstrong, and her amazing, faithful family. Find Rhonda’s original song “Rhonda Rose” by Chuck White and Morgan Cryar @ www.kindacountry.com)
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