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.