A few years after the collapse of the Soviet Union two American teachers were invited to teach at an orphanage in Moscow. At Christmas they were asked to teach the Christmas story to the children who, under an atheistic regime, had never heard it.

They built a manger scene and then asked the children to draw the gifts they would like to give to the baby Jesus. Then, as the children one by one presented their gifts, they saw one little boy actually climb into the manager and hug the doll that represented Jesus.

He told them that he’d asked Jesus if instead of a gift he could keep him warm, and that Jesus had said that that would be the most wonderful gift of all. And in doing it, that little boy who’d never had anyone to cuddle him, found a friend who would be with him forever.