It has been years now since Jacob had a Christmas. He always comes to sit and watch the people on Christmas. He watches them come and go, observing. How some stop and some just walk by, and some have tried to give him money. He always says the same thing, “ No you keep it, I finished with it long ago.” Every year he sits and watches and every year he turns down every offering. All he ever has with him is a beat up old suitcase and a shiny gold pocket watch. On this particular Christmas many years ago he was early by 2 days. He came to see the people. He was sitting and watching when he heard the door to the department store open with a jingle. A woman and a small boy exited. 

“I just don’t know what I am going to do with you Martin! What you did was very rude!” The mother said.

“He started it, and he deserved it. Besides I apologized” the little boy huffed.

“Well it was rude and you are in big trouble when we get home, now follow me we have errands.” She said turning quickly and walking. She was obviously very stressed but then of course most people were. Not enough time in the day they would always say.

The little boy stood right where he was and the mother just kept on walking.

He turned and looked around until he saw Jacob who smiled at the small boy.

“Come over here boy” Jacob said. The boy shrugged his shoulders, trudged over, and climbed up on the bench. He didn’t have much to do and to a small boy who doesn’t have anything to do but shop anything else is more interesting. 

“ What did you do in that store?” Jacob asked, as the little boy looked him up and down.

“I was playing a game and this little boy came up and tried to take it so I pushed him,” Martin said as though it was the most obvious thing in the whole world.

“ Well why do you think the little boy tried to take it?”  Jacob asked. Martin squirmed with a puzzled look on his face. He hadn’t exactly told the whole story just the parts he thought were important. The other little boy had been playing the game, but he was taking a long time and so Martin took it. 

“ Well it was my turn anyway.” Martin said

Jacob chuckled, he could picture the story already and Martin had probably told his mother something along those same lines.  He looked down to see Martin’s green eyes looking at him in curiosity.

“Well what is it?” Jacob asked.

Martin looked surprised and gestured to the shiny pocket watch Jacob was holding.

“Oh this. This is a pocket watch.” Jacob explained.

“ Yeah my dad has one but why..” Martin asked but then stopped. He didn’t quite know how to ask but his dad had saved to get his and he had lots of money.

“Why do I have one? I see, well that my boy is a rather long story. “ Jacob said and the little boy moved closer. Few boys can pass up a story especially when they have a feeling it might be interesting. Jacob laughed quietly and looked down at the pocket watch. He began the story.

“ Since I was a small boy my parents were very poor. We never had much and my parents were always very worried. When I was 11, I got my first job. I decided I didn’t want to be poor anymore. I figured if I had money I wouldn’t have to worry all the time.” Jacob explained Martin was puzzled. His dad had lots of money, but whenever he saw him all he did was worry.

“ I worked at a newspaper, a grocery store, and then this very department store. I was always looking for more ways to make more money. I did well. I eventually ran my own business pretty successful. I even got married to my lovely wife and best friend.” Jacob said

The boy looked around. He turned back to Jacob after finding nothing and asked, “Well where is she?” 

“ She went to heaven after we were married for 4 years. She had cancer real bad, and all my money couldn’t save her. I still miss her. She was the one who gave me this old pocket watch.” Jacob said, “ ‘Use this gift wisely’ my wife always said ‘time is the most precious and wasted gift you ever get. Use yours wisely’ she told me before she died. I never did listen and I found more ways to make money, thinking just one more dollar or one more paycheck and I wouldn’t have to worry. Oh yeah I had lots but I never did good. I just did and it left me empty. One day I got tired of it, I took my savings and I decided to travel to learn about this world we leave in. I found this watch while I was packing up. I come here now and sit and learn and watch and you know what?” Jacob asked turning to the boy

“What?” Martin asked

“People they never have used their time much. They just ask for more.” Jacob said.

Martin didn’t understand. He was only 9 at the time and he always saw people doing things. That was using time wasn’t it? He shrugged it didn’t really matter to him how people used their time. He turned back to Jacob. Jacob was studying him as he had been thinking. 

“ You know Martin you seem like a very smart boy. I want to give you something and I hope you use it better than I ever did.” Jacob said and he put the shiny gold pocket watch in Martin’s small hand. 

“ Thank you” Martin said looking at the pocket watch. He turned it over and saw letters on one side. His nanny was just teaching him to read and he didn’t know much about it so he just kept looking at how shiny his new gift was.

Then Jacob repeated the exact words his wife had once told him, 

“ Time is the most precious and wasted gift Martin. Use your gift wisely.” Jacob got up to leave. Martin looked up and watched in distress as he gathered his suitcase, the man was much more interesting than his nanny or mother.

“ Where are you going?” Martin asked.

“ I have things I have to do.” Jacob said and began to walk away.

Martin remembered one thing and called after the man “ Umm.. What is your name”?

Jacob turned and smiled “ Jacob”

Martin looked puzzled “ Don’t you have an end one?” Martin asked. He had 2 end names though he didn’t know why they never seemed to help him before but he figured they would have a use someday and so he wanted to know other peoples too.

“Well yes I do but it’s just Jacob, Martin, just Jacob.” He said and he walked down the street.

Martin sat on the bench turning his new watch over and over and opening and closing it until his mom came outside.

“Martin what do you have in your hand?” His mother asked afraid the boy had stolen it while she was in the store. The worker watching him through the window had seen him talking to a man, but she had raised him better than to steal.

“It’s a pocket watch mom, the man gave it to me, he just left” Martin said pointing down the long main street with his free hand.  He stopped; Jacob was nowhere to be seen on the long road. 

“Humm well we had better get home. Why don’t you let me take that until your older.” She said taking the watch from his hand and slipping it into her pocket. 

Martin was lost in thought wondering where Jacob went and didn’t seem to notice. His pocket watch was shown to his father and put in a display case in the upstairs rooms until he was older. He had a wonderful Christmas and forgot his gift completely.  

 

Years past, Martin grew up; he got a college education and became successful like his father. He felt happy; he was in love and getting married soon. Unfortunately while planning the wedding, his father had a heart attack. He lived but he was confined to a hospital for months. The young couple postponed the wedding. His father recovered for a while, and the wedding was beautiful. Martin’s father passed away after the second heart attack 3 weeks later. Martin and his wife, Emily, began the task of helping his mother move to a smaller home. It was a hard job but there were many good memories. Martin’s father was a businessman, but he had seen that pocket watch with Jacob’s wife’s saying about time. His father had ended up using his very wisely and loving his family. 

Martin was packing the upstairs rooms when the display case caught his eye. That gold pocket watch he had forgotten many years ago was sitting in a china cup. He pulled it out very carefully and remembered Jacob’s words on that day years ago. Martin tucked away the pocket watch, but the words kept nagging at him throughout the day. Finally at dinner he pulled it out and when his wife asked about it he explained the story of the pocket watch. Emily had tears in her eyes.

“ Martin, we have been successful, and I have loved it but perhaps it is time to do some good with that gift.” She said.

Martin couldn’t think of a more wonderful idea. 

They began thinking of ideas immediately. They came up with the idea of the Time hospital.  A place free of charge, with extra rooms for family members to stay. The family had been charged with large hotel bills when Martin’s father was staying at the hospital for his heart attack and along with the doctor’s bills, it had been a hard burden for the family.  The hospital was modeled after the children’s hospital but it was open to all ages. Many donors got on board and the project broke ground on January 9th 1855. Martin was using Jacob’s gift, his time for good. The hospital was successful. The doors opened, and patients and families came from all over. The local college had students signing up to help the doctors and volunteers were visiting daily to bring cheer. Two years after the hospital opened Martin and Emily were visiting patients when Martin noticed there was a patient Jacob in room 102, with no last name, just Jacob. Martin hurried to the room quickly with Emily following bewildered. Martin pushed open the door and there Jacob lay. A much older man now, his breathing was labored and his skin was the color of the sheets. Martin walked up to him and Emily took the clipboard. He heard her slight gasp when she saw the name. Martin and Emily had told the story to their 2 girls so many times that the whole family knew it by heart. Jacob’s eyes opened, cloudy but the same blue the same wisdom shone in them. Jacob saw Martin’s green eyes as curious as ever and filled with hope. Jacob had the feeling whose hospital he was in. The Lord does work in mysterious ways. 

“ Jacob, just Jacob?” Martin asked and Jacob nodded

“Just Jacob” He replied. 

Emily had tears in her eyes. She reached past to hug the frail man. 

Jacob chuckled and he looked at Martin. 

“This your wife?” He asked looking at the two of them

“ Yes sir she is.” Martin said smiling at Emily.

“ You did good. She reminds me of my Annie. You did real good.” Jacob said. He gestured a thin hand at the rest of the room “You used that gift and you used it well son.” 

Martin smiled and looked around.  This building was good, but the time that it took was great time, and this life was precious beautiful time. Martin didn’t want to waste a second. Now on every Tuesday Martin and Emily came to talk to Jacob. Soon their daughters Cindy and Caitie came to meet him too. They called him the man from the story and they loved hearing the story from him. Martin’s family was Jacob’s greatest joy in those last few years. He even got to meet little Jake born on Christmas Eve with big green eyes just like his dad. He passed away on New Year’s. Martin was with him; he had received word that he was passing. 

Jacob told him again, “ Time is the most precious and wasted gift use yours wisely. You did good Martin; my Anne would be proud, real proud of you. “ Then the widest grin passed across his face, “ I get to see her soon, my precious Anne.” He whispered all the anticipation and joy wrapped up in those few words. “ You raise those girls right, and Jake too. They are your time now, never forget. Tell them I love them.” Jacob said a single tear in his eye as the pain increased and his breathing became labored.

“I will, you tell Anne hi. Save a place for us we will be there soon.” Martin said 

“I will save a place for you right next to us. But don’t come to soon there is still time and a whole lot of good left to be done.” Jacob said.

“Yes sir” Martin said his voice cracking 

“Oh, oh” Jacob exclaimed his eyes glistened, “it’s so beautiful, so beautiful can you see it” He asked. He took his last labored breath on this world seeing the glorious heavens in his heart.

“Not yet Jacob, not yet, I’ll see it someday, but not quite yet, there is still a whole let of good for me to do” Martin whispered as the frail hand went limp in his.