The Needy--Us Included

She clutched her Operation Christmas Child box in her arms and called to me from the backseat of the truck with a squeal in her voice, "Mommy, I love giving these boxes! I'm so excited to pack mine up! I think this is my most favourite thing in the whole world to do."

 

I turned around and grinned at my eight year-old "bleeding heart". "You have such an important job to do for God, Emily. In fact, you're already doing it. But there's something special about the joy you have in giving, that makes me believe that working with people living in poverty will be your career someday." She had tears in her big, brown eyes as she listened and it broke my heart in a good way.

 

Each of the kids lovingly tucked the items we had purchased for their unknown child into the shoe boxes that night. They chattered about what it might be like to watch children who never receive gifts, tearing open the boxes filled with things they had meticulously chosen for them. That boy of mine periodically asked to keep this item or that but he's catching onto this sacrificial giving thing. We watched the YouTube videos of Samaritan's Purse staff passing out the priceless treasures to little outstretched arms. My kids giggled and stared in wonderment. I cried every few minutes as we continued clicking for almost an hour on various videos of recipients from different countries. It unglued me and I wept longer.

 

Jesus knew when He commanded us to care for the poor that not only would the poor be given aid, but the giver would be set free in the very act of giving. There's nothing like it, humans providing for humans in obedience to God's Word. I'm so glad Jesus calls us to give to one another. It levels us to become equals so we can grasp that we're all in need of a Saviour. But sometimes, it takes meeting basic needs first to truly help people understand the heart of God, and that is, He loves us so much that He supplies not only our needs but He offers His Son. We are all set free when we receive that Gift!

I Don't Deserve This!

We were beginning to feel the effects of the broken furnace and so we triple covered our slumbering children in their beds. It was eleven p.m. and I was shivering. My husband stoked the fire and all I wanted to do was sleep but my clattering bones were drawn to the only soothing place in the house.

Once I had nearly burned my back right through my jammies, I felt I was ready to make the run to the bedroom and fly under the crisp covers. There, I huddled underneath, socked feet flattened between my husband's calves. My head, completely covered, was nestled into his... armpit, I think. It was dark and I didn't care... as long as I was warm. When I lost the ability to breathe, I came up for air.

The sun didn't shine the next morning... it rained... which made it even colder. One by one, my children rose from their beds, wrapped in blankets or dressed in layers of shirts and sweaters. They were good sports about it, especially because it seemed that schoolwork would have to be done around the fireplace that day. Oliver even decided that the fire might be a good way to toast his English muffin for breakfast :) Daddy did his stoking one more time before heading off to work.

But all of it got me thinking. As the goosebumps rose on my arms, I pulled the flannel blanket tighter around me, but thoughts of the homeless, wrapped only in hopelessness, invaded my mind.

What is our inconvenience is their reality!

I shuddered again, not because of my cold body but because of my frigid heart.

Our situation wasn't so bad that I asked, "Why me, Lord?" but I wondered, why don't I ever cry out to God, "I don't deserve this!" when things are going well? When Japan is facing an unfathomable crisis, why do we get to cuddle up together, each one of us accounted for?

Again, gratitude flooded this comfortable, sinful soul and I praised Him for every precious moment, every perfect gift and... every small hazard that compels me to discern how much I don't deserve the good stuff.

(Joining my two moms (one, in-law) and my aunt and their immeasurable hearts for the poor... Mom V. crochets sleeping mats for the Haitian children, my Mom knits blankets for babies left in the fields in Africa while their mothers go to work in the sex-slave-trade, and my Aunt Kathy gives to every single needy person in her life and solicits others to join her--in the gift of giving.

We, as a family, help to provide the materials for these projects but can do a little more. Is there anything you can do in your area with your kids? I want to teach my children to praise God for every blessing, not to feel entitled to the goodness they experience, and to give out of over-flowing hearts... perhaps then, I'll "get it" one day too.)