Giving And Receiving

After the tragic events of Friday December 14, the country has been advocating random acts of kindness and treating your neighbor like you would want to be treated.  For the record, I do not perform random acts of generosity or kindness because a current well known public figure tells me to.  I don't believe that the world will be changed by performing 26 random acts of kindness once in a year.  To forget your selfish nature just long enough to do something in the name of a victim of a horrible tragedy only to pick it back up again and push and shove your way through Black Friday next year really doesn't help anyone, not in the long run.

Any acts of kindness or selflessness that I perform are done because Jesus Christ died on the cross to save me from death.  I do the things I do because He commanded me to love my neighbor as myself.  He paid the ultimate price for me.  Out of a place of darkness, I was set free.  It is that freedom and love and genuine care for those around me that pushes me to do the things I do.  It's also something that I do year round, not just once a year.

This year I was prompted to give a meal to a family I'll never meet.  My church held a diaper drive so that moms in need would have diapers this Christmas.  I've put my change in the red kettles and thanked a man in  Army fatigues for his service and my freedom.  I explained to my son that we do these things not for glory or recognition here and instead, we give because we have been given so much more than we realize through what Jesus did on the cross.

What I didn't expect was what we were given.

Yesterday at church, Nate and I delivered cupcakes to our Sunday school class because it's Christmas weekend and I have next weekend off before the New Year and you simply cannot send children into their Christmas break without a lot of sugar and frosting.  It's simply not allowed.  When we arrived, there was a bag and a large box wrapped up in paper and tied with ribbon waiting for us.  My pastor's wife (and my boss as she runs the Sunday school program) gave us a bag with yummy treats in it and homemade bird feeders to hang outside our windows for the birds.  One of our students gave us a beautiful ornament with the nativity scene inside that's lit up with a light.

I didn't know what to think.  Inside the larger bag that was waiting with the box were clothes, gently laundered and smelling so wonderfully fresh, for my son.  The box held a thick winter coat for him to wear next year and clothes and socks and gloves and a little hat.  There were also two $25 Walmart gift cards for me and Nate.  When I got home and started putting things away, I simply stood in 2.0's room and sobbed.

I will never know who did those things for us.  I'll never know who to thank or throw my arms around and give a big hug to.  I don't know why these people thought of us and loved us like this.  I fought with a feeling of unworthiness.  My pastor's wife smiled at me and told me to just say thank you.  So I say now Thank You.  (I'm crying now as I write this because I'm still so incredibly touched.)

Giving and receiving came full circle for us this year.  We got to have the joy of knowing that we gave something wonderful to a family that needed it and then received a gift of loving kindness from others.  What I hope you take away from this post is that your act of kindness shouldn't stop when the holidays are over.  It should continue all year.  God loved us, not just at Christmas time, but all year round.  So we are to love others all the time.

Merry Christmas from Nate, 2.0, and I.  :)