The Flannery Twins and The Gift of a New Life

CBN.com Christmas is a time when most children visit Santa, bake cookies and play with all their new toys but, for Josh and Jacob Flannery, Christmas was not so merry.

"We really didn’t get to be children," Jacob tells The 700 Club. "We had to be like our mom’s parent."

Their mother was only 15 when the twins were born. As the twins got older, their mom developed a dangerous drug habit

Josh says, "Somewhere along the line, she just stopped caring the same way for us, and we could tell something was different.  Because she was addicted to drugs, that took ahold of her life. Sometimes we would come home, and our mom wouldn’t be there."

Things at home hit a boiling point one evening when a drug dealer was at the house.

"I remember that I would try to get them to go away," Josh says. "I remember he looked at me and said, 'I can do whatever I want.' I was looking at her.  I said, 'No, get out of my house. We don’t want that here.'  He came at me, punched me in the face and kicked me in the ground. I ran to my room and shut the door."

Their grandmother often told them that God could help them if they believed.

Josh says, "I remember praying out to Jesus, who I heard about.  'Jesus, I need you.  I need, I need help. I can’t do this without you.'”

The boys eventually moved in with their grandmother, who always took them to sunday school. They enjoyed Bible stories and learning about God. As the holidays approached, they had one request for Christmas.

"She asked us what we wanted, and we said, 'Well, we want a Bible.' We knew we wanted to learn like more about God," Josh continues.

Jacob adds, "They were teen Bibles, and they were really easy to understand.  So we really just started to read and grow in God’s Word that way."

As Josh and Jacob studied the Bible they realized that, despite their harsh upbringing, God had a plan for their lives.

"It taught me to live for God [and] for someone else than myself," Jacob says.

"I noticed that everything that had happened in the past was for a reason," Josh says.

Jacob and Josh will never forget the Bibles they got from their grandmother that Christmas.

Josh says, "We had someone who invested in us, cared for us and gave us this gift.  The gift did change our lives."

"It really represented a new chapter of what God was going to open up in my life," notes Jacob.

They have since forgiven and reconnected with their mother.

"I visit my mom regularly," Josh says. "We hang out, and I love her a lot even though she did make horrible mistakes. She still loved us. She was just sick."

Jacob adds, "I forgive her now like 100 percent. I love her.  She’s our mom."

Today, Josh and Jacob are college freshmen and hope to one day work in ministry. The Flannery twins say, through their hardship and God’s grace, they’ve learned the true meaning of Christmas.

Josh says, "What basically Christmas is about loving each other, not just about gifts. Jesus Christ, why did He come?  Because He loves us."

"On Christmas God gave us a gift," Jacob says. "In the beginning, He gave us Jesus, so for us on that day, we got the gift of a new life."