"The reason for the season..."

Here's a great Christmas feel-good story (after my depressing post yesterday.) In 2005, Phillip Miner was in a Borders Bookstore and was mistaken for a male model by Liz Swindle. Before that time, Miner had left the Mormon church at age 14, got married, became a father by age 19, had another son and divorced his wife. He had no interest in religion but the lady in Borders asked if he would be an understudy for a model of Jesus named Christopher Crofts. "I knew this Jesus guy really didn't mean anything to me, but I got that he was a big deal in a lot of people's lives, " he told the Deseret News, so he decided to help out. In 2007, Mothers Without Borders asked Ms. Swindle if she could create paintings of Jesus interacting with African children, and the charity would take the profits. They flew Miner to Africa to an orphanage for children whose parents had died of AIDS. The children were overwhelmed and tearful at his appearance among them. "I told one 12-year-old girl that I was there to remind her that Jesus knows and loves her," he told the Deseret News, "and she started sobbing, weeping and wailing." While in Africa, Miner woke up very sick, feeling like he had the flu. "Until then, I was on a paid vacation having some interesting experiences, " Miner said, "Then a stranger laid his hands on my head, and it became clear that these were not his words." It was then he decided it was time for the actor Jesus Christ to follow the real Jesus Christ. An added benefit was meeting Kathy, who founded Mothers Without Borders and they married 2 months later. "I go back to where I started," he said. "This Jesus guy is really kind of a big deal to a lot of people. I just happen to be one of those now."

Amen.