Philippians 4:4
Rejoice in the Lord always: and again I say, Rejoice.
Not just at this time of year, but all year long we need to rejoice! There are so many reasons to rejoice, the first of which is the fact that God gave Jesus for us! Nothing else even comes close to how awesome that act of ultimate giving was! Wow!
Even though nothing we give can compare to God's gift to us, I would like to share a story about how God used my children to bless someone when they chose to give. Such is the subject of today's boast:
I remember a time when my children, Jennifer, Justin, and Ryan, were all very young, but their hearts were "older" than many adults I know. Like so often was the case while they were growing up, we had very little money, but that never seemed to phase my children. They were always so grateful for anything and everything they had, and they all had giving hearts that wanted to share with others.
Their giving hearts led them one year to asking me if they could give some of their toys and clothes to others who did not have as much as they did. (Wow...they saw themselves as so blessed in comparison to others in spite of having very little.) Of course I said yes, but I never imagined the level of giving they intended!
They ended up giving their FAVORITE stuff instead of their junk. They gathered together bicycles and other treasured toys along with some of their favorite items of clothing. How could I say no to their eagerness to give? Now all that was left was to find a family to give it to.
We called several organizations, but all of them said they had enough. It was so strange that no matter how hard we tried, we could not find an organization to give it to! We decided to just go for a drive and trust the Lord to lead us to a family that could use it. Funny enough we didn't have to drive very far.
As we headed up the main road toward the highway, we were passing some sections of woods on either side of the road. All of a sudden, we saw an old pickup truck parked on the side of the road with a woman and young children in the back of the pickup! We knew they must be the ones, so we pulled over. When we asked the woman why they were there, she whispered to us that her husband was in the woods picking sugar cane because it was all they would be able to give the children for Christmas.
That was enough of a confirmation for us! We opened up the back of our vehicle and showed her what we had and explained that our children wanted to give it away as a Christmas present to other children. Talk about tears! She was crying, I was crying, her children and my children were crying...there was just a whole lot of crying going on! Even her husband started crying when he came out of the woods and discovered what was happening.
I'll never forget the joy on the faces of those children. Even more so, I'll never forget the joy on my own children's faces as they learned how blessed it is to give to others. God is soooo awesome!
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