Christmas Can Last All Year

Love INC asked me to share my experience helping families in need this past Christmas.  I thought you might like to read what I wrote.

“What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but has no deeds? Can such faith save them? Suppose a brother or a sister is without clothes and daily food.  If one of you says to them, ‘Go in peace; keep warm and well fed,’ but does nothing about their physical needs, what good is it?  In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead. (James 2:14-17)

While Christmas is certainly not the only time we are called to care for others, it’s an easy time to show faith through action; the spirit of giving abounds and needs are more publicized.  Over the past few years, God has softened my heart toward those in need and shown me the abundance of riches He’s given me.  He has convicted me with Paul’s words: “But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that” (1 Tim. 6:8).  When Christmas rolls around and people start asking for my wish list, these verse come back to me and prompt me to ask that my gifts be given to someone in need.  I have food and clothing and will be content with that.

My family has also started giving up their presents, and this Christmas I was able to buy gifts on their behalf for a family I heard about through Love INC.  The family originally consisted of a blind single mother and her elementary aged daughter, but a couple of weeks before Christmas the mother called to say that her sister had been put in jail and she now had custody of her two-year-old niece.  A woman in need, helping those in even greater need. 

I have a three-year-old niece, so I contacted my sister to see if she had any clothes, toys or diapers that would be appropriate for this new addition to the family we were helping.  She was able to put together some things my niece had outgrown, in particular a winter coat.  My niece wondered what her mom was doing with her coat, so my sister explained to her that there was a little girl who didn’t have a coat, who could wear this one that no longer fit her.  

I’m not sure if my niece had ever heard of people who don’t have everything they need, but her tender little heart was definitely grieved by this idea.  She said she wanted to give her coat to the girl who didn’t have one.  She also decided to color a picture for the “little girl,” in case she didn’t have any pictures.  I was touched by her thoughtfulness and generosity toward a little girl, like herself, who didn’t have everything she needed.  I was excited that she had seen the real meaning of Christmas and was hopeful that she would remember that spirit of giving in future Christmases.  I thought that next year, when it’s time to buy gifts for someone in need, I could remind her about the little girl she helped this year.  I didn’t expect that the lesson would stick year-round.  But it did.

The “little girl who doesn’t have a coat” has become something of a legend in my sister’s house.  Just a few days ago, my niece put on her favorite skirt and discovered that it no longer fit.  Her first thought was that she should set it aside “for the little girl who doesn’t have one.”   

We usually think that by giving to those in need during the holidays or at other times throughout the year, we are helping them.  And we are.  But I think those who give receive much more than we ever give away.  We get to see young hearts learning to show compassion to others.  We get to break out of our materialism and cultivate a spirit of thankfulness for all we’ve been given rather than make lists of everything we want.  We get to live out true faith.  It really is more blessed to give than to receive (Acts 20:35). 

Thank you, Love INC, for making this Christmas a blessing to so many.