Rejoice! - 1. Rejoice!

"I have some good news to share with all of you today," Duncan Fitzpatrick announced to his employees, whom he had unexpectedly called together. "My daughter-in-law has given birth to twin sons!"

There were a lot of smiles, cheers and shouts of 'Congratulations', as the smile on Duncan's face widened. After allowing this spontaneous expression of happiness to continue for about a minute, Duncan signaled for everyone to quiet down, so he could speak again.

"As you know, my wife and I have been blessed with a good life and a great deal of financial success. My car dealership has prospered, while many others have failed, and it has provided continued employment for all of you. However, not everything in our life has gone this well." Duncan paused briefly and scanned the faces before him, to see how they were reacting to his last statement.

"Most of you probably aren't aware of this, but my wife and I spent quite a few years trying to have a child, without success," he continued. "After a succession of mishaps, my wife finally gave birth to our only child. We named him Ian, which comes from our Celtic/Gaelic roots and means 'God is gracious'. You are very familiar with him, because he's been my right hand man here at the dealership and will take over for me when I retire."

Duncan took a few seconds to think about how he wanted to continue, before he spoke again.

"I'm not sure if our problem with having children was due to a genetic disorder or something else, but Ian and his wife, Bridget, had been having similar problems. After several years of trying to have a child without success, she finally got pregnant and two days ago, on December 2, she gave birth to fraternal twins. Ian and Bridget thought long and hard about what to name the boys and have finally made these choices. The firstborn will be called Nathan, which is from the Hebrew and means 'gift of God'. Their other son will be named Theodore, which is from the Greek and means 'divine gift'."

Duncan could hear an audible 'awww' from the collective group of women in attendance and merely grinned in appreciation, but every face in front of him was smiling. He now felt it was time for him to share the rest of the news with those assembled.

"The reason I asked all of you here this morning, before we opened the doors of the dealership for the day, was not just to share this joyous news. I have a special gift for each of you as well. I will be circulating throughout the dealership today so I can give each of you an additional seasonal bonus this year."

A collective, audible gasp could be heard when he said this, but Duncan only paused briefly before continuing.

"You will be getting your annual Christmas bonus from the business next week, but this particular gift is from my wife and myself, out of our personal accounts. It is our attempt to share this wonderful moment with you and we happily give each of you this gift on behalf of our grandsons. Let's just say we're 'paying our good fortune forward', so you can share in it too. All I ask is that in some small way, you also 'pay your good fortune forward' and do something nice for someone else who will benefit from it."

Once Duncan finished speaking, the area became abuzz with the murmurs of the various employees, as they conferred with those closest to them. Although Duncan couldn't hear what they were saying, he knew they were all stunned and pleased.

Throughout the day, Duncan made his way from one department to another, and from one employee to the next, as he presented each one with an envelope. When the person opened it, he or she found that it contained five $100 bills. This was far more than any of them were expecting, so they thanked him profusely, but they also congratulated him personally on the birth of his grandsons.

Ian, the proud father, did something similar to celebrate the birth of his sons. Since it was the Christmas season, Ian selected one of the local stores, but he made certain it was one that both sold children's toys and had a layaway program. He then asked the store manager to provide him with the number, but not the names on any current layaway account that had toys on them. As soon as he had this information, he wrote a check to the store.

"I want you to take this check and credit each of those accounts with a $100 payment," he told the store manager. "I just ask that you keep this totally anonymous and not mention my name to anyone. I would also like you to inform your employees to encourage those benefiting from this to merely do something nice for someone else, in return."

Ian had chosen this particular method to share his good fortune, because he felt those needing to use layaway to buy their children's Christmas gifts would probably benefit from this little surprise, more so than others.

His gifts also blossomed and bore fruit. Before long, the local media outlets were bursting with reports of increased donations to various groups, such as the food pantry, the homeless shelter and several other charitable organizations. There were also numerous reports about complete strangers going out of their way to do something kind and completely unexpected for others, as this phenomenon grew. The trend soon began to spread to adjacent communities as well and led the national news outlets to pick up on this growing story.

From the private celebration of the birth of twin boys, known only to a few, began a movement of sharing their good fortune and rejoicing in the blessings such a miracle deserves. I can only hope that similar unexpected gifts may be given to you and your loved ones as well. May the feelings of generosity and goodwill be shared and enjoyed by all throughout the year, not just during this one particular season of the year.

The End.