Monday, December 14, 2009

The Giving Tree

Just when you are starting to lose faith in Christmas, something like this happens. Yesterday, B and A and I were able to help out distributing gifts for our church's Christmas Giving Tree project. Those little branches sticking up in the middle were filled only a few weeks ago with hundreds of gift tags. People from lots of different agencies with not a lot of hope for a present this year at Christmas. Most of them children. Even in this year, even with this economy, the tags still were taken from the tree. Each and every one. That generosity resulted in this pile of presents. A gift for each individual on those lists. When you entered the family area of our church and saw this pile of presents, this pile of generosity-it was overwhelming in person. On a stressful Sunday in December, it restored my faith a little. It showed me that some people have not forgotten what it's really about. That people are still good. That they have the ability to get outside of themselves still. B and A helped attack that pile. They sorted, they checked off the lists to make sure that no one was left out or forgotten. They bagged and labeled. All the while truly enjoying themselves. I couldn't have been more proud of the fact that not once upon seeing that large pile of presents, 2 weeks before Christmas, did they mention gifts for themselves. We are fortunate and blessed in so many ways.

8 comments:

  1. Wonderful! We cashed in all of our spare coins (we keep a jar of them) and spent almost $200 on needy kids this year. It's important to remember that not everyone has what you have.

    What a good lesson for your kids.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We adopted a family with the ladies we exercise with...I sometimes forget how important it is give, not just for the family who needs, but for my own soul.

    ReplyDelete
  3. That is amazing! Looking at that pile gives me such a great feeling.

    ReplyDelete
  4. TKW took the word out of my mouth--wonderful.

    ReplyDelete
  5. That is heartwarming! It's so wonderful to be able to help out, and especially to teach our children to help, as well.

    ReplyDelete
  6. I love when people do things like this at the holiday times! It just makes the whole world seem ok and right : ) Very nice. I am visiting you today form Scary Mommy's blog : )

    ReplyDelete
  7. So great. I think it's so important for kids to take part in events like this at this time of year!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That makes my heart happy!!

    ReplyDelete