Where's Your Daddy?

A couple of weeks before Christmas, Whit's End is hopping. Connie Kendall comes in from shopping and notices a woman sitting alone on the park bench across the street - the same woman who was there when Connie left, and now she seems to be crying. John Whittaker walks over to talk with her. Her name is Julie Myers. She has recently moved to Odyssey with her two children, her husband is gone, and though she has looked all over town for work, nobody has a job for her. Whit does. He hires her on the spot as Christmas help at Whit's End.

Later, while Whit, Connie, and Tom Riley put up the shop's Christmas tree, Tom explains the Angel Tree project he is running: envelopes on the tree hold the names of families who have a parent in prison, and people from the churches pick an envelope and help that family with toys and clothes. Tom, who teaches a Bible study at the prison, has seen how heartbreaking it is on both sides of the bars. As they talk, Julie arrives with hot chocolate, drops the tray, and hurries away looking shaken.

Julie's children soon turn up at the shop. Eric, her teenage son, is angry and suspicious. Everyone at Whit's End seems nice now, he tells his mother, but wait until they find out about Dad. His little sister Brooke goes off with Connie to see the train set, where a girl named Sandi keeps asking where Brooke's father is. Pushed too far, Brooke bursts into tears and shouts out the secret: her daddy is in jail.

Connie comforts Brooke over hot chocolate. Brooke explains that whenever people find out about her daddy, the kids tease her, her mommy can't get a job, and the family ends up all alone. Connie tells her she is not alone now, and that with God she never has to be. Meanwhile Whit calls Julie to his office. She admits she was going to tell him about her husband; in other jobs, people made her feel unwelcome once they knew. When the judge sentenced her husband, she says, the family was sentenced too, to a different kind of prison just as lonely and dark. Whit shows her the one Angel Tree envelope he kept for himself. It has her name on it. He, Tom, and Connie want to provide her family's Christmas. When Whit asks what her kids need, Julie answers, "Their father." Whit says they may not manage that, but they will see how close they can get.

On Christmas Eve, Tom has presents arranged: the baby doll Brooke has been begging for, and a bike still to be found for Eric, who has been working odd jobs all over town trying to be the man of the house. Tom heads off to wish the men in his prison Bible study a merry Christmas. That night, as Julie tucks Brooke into bed, Brooke asks whether Mommy wants to see Daddy again. Julie confesses she is confused; he has made the same mistakes over and over, and she is afraid he will make them again. Then Eric comes home with a pocketful of dimes and quarters and a heart full of doubt. Nobody helps without a catch, he insists, and nobody can be counted on - not even your own father. He storms out into the night for a walk.

Outside, Eric runs into Tom, whose arms are so full of presents he cannot reach his keys. Eric holds the packages, and then Tom surprises him: he knows Eric's name from the picture his dad keeps with him at the prison. Eric's father is one of Tom's best Bible study students, the presents are for Eric's own family, and his dad has sent a message - he misses Eric and he loves him. Eric doesn't believe it; his dad never talked like that. He does now, Tom says. His daddy has met Jesus.

On Christmas morning, Whit, Connie, and Tom join the Myers family as the gifts are opened: the doll for Brooke, a sweater for Julie, and for Eric a sturdy old bike that once belonged to Whit's son. Then Tom brings out three more gifts, made by the children's father with his own hands: a handmade doll for Brooke, a nameplate for Eric's bike, and a letter for Julie. Too moved to read it herself, Julie hands it to Whit. In the letter, their father tells how he has been learning about forgiveness and change, how he has asked God to forgive him, and how he now asks his family to forgive him for hurting and deserting them. Julie makes her decision: they will go visit their father today. When Eric worries that they have no presents to take, Tom tells him they will be presents enough.