The Christmas Gun

"You almost @#$%^!& ran over me and my kids. What the #%$@ is wrong with you!"
"Shut the @$#% up!"
"You can $%&^%*@ *%^& my *&^%"
"I swear, I will get a ^$*%@$! gun out of my car and shoot you!"

That's right folks, I went to Walmart last night and Christmas was in he air. People had smiles on their faces, kind of. The smiles were all upside down. Folks would great each other with Christmas cheer, I think. They were all muttering something under their breath that I couldn't quite make out. Ok, so everyone wasn't happy. That would soon change though.

Everyone likes free and that's what the Vineyard Westsided was bringing the people of the Westside Walmart. Free gift wrap and free hot chocolate. My job was simple. I stood out in front of the Walmart exit door to direct people towards the giant, quasi heated tent that we had been set up outside the far corner of the store. Inside were volunteers providing their gift wrapping skills, hot chocolate and lots of love. And yes, it was all free.

A lot of people were in a state of disbelief upon hearing of this phenomenon, free. "Are you playing a joke on me" one guy asked. "No joke," I said. "No, I think this is some sort of joke," he replied, certain that we were out to get him on some sort of cheap version of punked. Many were skeptical. They quizzed me as to why or who we were. They were looking for the catch. "They're going to ask for a donation once you get in there," the Salvation Army bell wringer quipped. "Nope, no donations accepted," I would repeat over and over again. The bell wringer soon became a witness to this fact after walking over there himself for a steaming cup of coco. "No donation huh, that is unusual," he replied. In the end I was told that we had given away over 450 cups of coco and wrapped more presents than could be counted. 7,500sq feet of wrapping paper was one persons guess. It was fun and no one got shot. Jesus loves the westside.