Jesus' Love Through "Lego Star Wars II"

This year's Christmas Eve post (have I ever had a Christmas Eve post before? Best check the archives... looks like I did, last year) needs, like many of my stories, a bit of history to understand it.

Katrina and I started attending our church sometime in 2003, and took over as third-grade Sunday School teachers for that summer. We had a marvelous time, and made strong connections with kids and their families, a great first step towards becoming strongly tied in with out church. Most of the core kids from that group still attend there, and are now sixth graders, the youngest of the junior high kids (which our Emily, as a sixth grader herself, is a part of).

One of the kids in that third grade group that really captured both of our hearts is a little boy I'll call Augustin. Augustin comes from a pretty rough background - suffice it to say, he and his little sister are being raised by their absolutely saintly grandparents, a sixtyish couple who we've come to know and adore over the past four years.

Augustin has some behavioral issues, as befitting a) a child of his background and b) an average twelve-year-old male. However, he has such an irrepressible charm about him that seems, in our eyes, anyway, to excuse any aberrant behavior. Not so with some other adults he has to deal with (his grandparents fortunately not included). Some folks find the boy just irritating, which just baffles us. Frankly, we just love the kid, and he loves us. I didn't know the depth of that love until tonight, however.

Two things that Augustin and I share in common is a love of Star Wars and a love of video games. Naturally, when those two worlds come together, it's pretty much nirvana for the both of us. I think one of the things that has drawn him to view us as sort of a mentors/parent figures/pals is that we are some of the few (maybe the only) adults in his life who take his interests seriously. He's a huge "Legend of Zelda" fan, which Katrina and her mom are as well, and it scored HUGE points with Augustin when Katrina could speak authoritatively about the relative difficulties of different castles in "The Ocarina of Time." A favorite topic of discussion, however, was the quirky yet incredibly fun "Lego Star Wars," in which one plays through various scenarios from Episodes I, II and III in the form of video Lego blocks. If it sounds lame, it's not - it's one of the most fun and funny games I've ever played. Katrina got it for me for Valentine's Day in 2005, and together we played through the entire game to completion.

About two weeks ago, the phone rang with an unknown number. When I answered it, it was Augustin, who, oddly, asked for Katrina. After a hushed conversation, she told me later that evening that he was getting me a Christmas present.

Tonight at church, he met us at the door with it. I opened it up, and it was Lego Star Wars II - something he and I have both been drooling over for months ever since teaser screen shots were released.

After thanking him copiously, which to a twelve-year-old boy means a high five, a "fist punch", and a "man hug" - a quick embrace coupled with lots of hard back pounding, I took my seat with my family in the sanctuary to the strains of "O Holy Night" being sung by the congregation. When the singing was over and before the Pastor ascended the platform, Katrina leaned over and told me what a big deal this gift was to Augustin.

It seems that Augustin, a boy of little means, could not afford to purchase the game outright as he wanted to.

So he traded in over ten of his prized video games to GameStop in order to get enough credits to afford it.

For me.

For a game this twelve-year-old knew I'd like.



All I could think was, could I have given up ten of my Atari cartridges in 1981 in order to purchase a gift for a grown up?


The answer is, most certainly not.


But then, I'm not Augustin.


How blessed I am.

Merry Christmas, everybody.