My best friend Jane and I
went to visit Pauline, who we hadn’t seen in years. She had come on hard times
but I didn’t know just how bad things were until she answered this question:
“What are your boys getting for Christmas this year?”
Her head hung down and she
answered, “I don’t have any money so I have to wrap some of their old toys so
they have something to open.” It broke my heart. She showed us the two toys she
planned to wrap, a deflated football and a broken truck.
Jane and I each had $50
extra we could spend so we asked Pauline what the boys would like. Off we went
to the store. We stretched that $100 as far as we could and bought every fun
thing we could think of including the new football and shiny red truck they told
their mom they really wanted. We also bought two of the biggest Christmas
stockings we could find and filled them with candy and small things for each of
them. Everything went under the Christmas tree.
On Christmas morning when
they opened up those presents, the look of delight on their faces totally
outweighed the effort and money we spent. I’ll never forget that Christmas.
The Las Vegas casinos give
away prizes all year long and Jane collects them for the end of the year. She
made up a game to play on Christmas Eve with my family and we give away the
prizes, but this year we were inspired to do something different.
Starbucks was collecting
gifts for the kids at the local Rescue Mission, so we pulled down the boxes
from the attic and opened them up. We found all kinds of cute kids’ stuff. Then
we decided to take it a step further and were excited to find warm blankets,
some winter gloves, jewelry, jackets, long-sleeved shirts and all kinds of
things. The more we found to give, the happier and more excited we got. When we went on-line to see what they needed,
we found that they wanted Bibles. That really made my day. I happen to have a
small collection and several for children and teens. You know, that really
touched my heart.
Ephesians 4:28 says, “Let him that stole steal no more: but
rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he
may have to give to him that needeth.”
It’s my opinion that in the past several years there’s been way too much
emphasis put on giving to get. But here in Ephesians it’s just the opposite, we
get to give!
“Remember the words
of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive”
(Acts 20:35).
The Greek word for
blessed in this verse means “happier.” I got to experience the true delight of
giving and you can too. Think about it.
Love, Carolyn
(photo is of some of the things we gave to the Rescue Mission here in Las Vegas)
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