GIVE MORE (Beth Kowall)
It started out innocently enough with my husband and me just chatting about ways that we could make a difference in someone else’s life.
Now you have to remember we didn’t have much ourselves, but we felt we had more than enough and felt blessed because of this. It was close to Christmas and we thought there may be a family that could use help, so we asked our pastor if she knew of a family with a child that may not experience a nice Christmas, she had us leave it with her; 10 days later she told us of a family who were in financial difficulty, we did not ask the family’s name and we remained anonymous. Gord was a very talented carpenter so we decided to make a gift for this child, together we made the templates and cut the wood, once the wood was cut and assembled it came together as a Teddy Bear stool, many hours of work went into creating this stool, I created the face with a wood burning tool and stain, googly eyes, a soft felt stuffed nose and tail, then wrapped the body with many layers of batting and a final layer of very soft furry fabric for the illusion of a bear’s body, Gord put finishing nails all around the outer edges of the fabric. We put together a Christmas sock to go with the stool. A couple of weeks later our pastor wrote us a very touching letter telling us of how happy the family were to be thought of on Christmas morning especially when their child opened their gift and sock from us. We continued to do this for another three years where we used the same template design and changed it into a cat, dog, cat in the hat and then Gord became sick and was unable to continue. During these years at house church a question was asked if we had done something unselfish for someone else, we were asked to share our experience so then we confided in our friends, we told them of making the Teddy Bear stool. They had heard of families receiving these gifts, but they didn’t know who was doing it. There were a few tears and a lot of hugs once they realized how much work we had done to help other families have a happier Christmas, and to know that someone cares.
Read
Isaiah 11:1-2
Challenge
In order for a shoot to come out of a stump, the stump has to be dead first. Out of something which is dead, finished and useless comes new growth, new shelter, and new life. Understanding, wisdom, counsel and knowledge are what’s needed to give this to us.
Jesus came to give us new life, a new understanding, a new beginning. How does the birth of Christ give you a new beginning? How does the reality of Christmas change you?
Quote
“Gifts of time and love are surely the basic ingredients of a truly merry Christmas.“
(Peg Bracken)