Sitting here today thinking about all the blessings of this Christmas. I read today one writer's opinion that everyone's best Christmas happens at the age of 10, and it's downhill from there. I guess that depends on your point of view.
From where I'm sitting, I wish people who thought that could have seen the joy in the eyes of a little girl when Bunny and I (like several other people at New Hope did for others) delivered Christmas dinner and some toys to her house last Sunday. Her mom cried, we cried, and Bunny got a huge hug from the little girl.
There's no way a ten year old would understand what the items Bunny and I delivered to Shelter House Friday would mean to the women and kids served by that group. Some of the Child2Child girls that led us in that collection and made the Christmas stockings that the women raved over might be tickled to realize just how much they helped, but they couldn't grasp what it meant, and that's the real joy in the giving to "the least of these."
I don't think a ten year old would have appreciated how awesome it was after our incredible Christmas Eve worship to go with some other New Hope folks and surprise a young woman who had to work as a waitress on Christmas Eve. We ate, laughed, and loved each other around the diner table.
And I'm not sure a ten year old would have been nearly as excited as our friend Allan was tonight when he showed up at the front door (dripping wet from the rain), and we gave him his Christmas presents - a new Bible (with a cool cover that included a compass) and a Hershey Bar. As I drove Allan home, he kept saying how happy he was to have such good friends.
You know, I cannot remember the Christmas when I was ten. But I'll remember this one.
I'm thinking it has something to do with giving. You know, I hear someone once said that was the more blessed way not just to celebrate, but to live.
Merry Christmas everyone.
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