A Christmas Gift of Thanks

When one of our church members was collecting money for the Salvation Army at the supermarket, a homeless man approached him and noticed the sign stating that the collectors were from our church. The homeless man asked, ‘What church is that?’ The church member pointed toward our building down the street. The homeless man pulled a few coins from his pocket, dropped them into the collecting tin and said, ‘They’ve been good to me.’

That man’s gift to the Salvation Army was also a beautiful gift to each of us who share in the mission of making God’s love real through our church. He spoke for people whose names we will never know and whose faces we may never see, who would speak the same words of gratitude for this church and its ministries in our city and around the world. 

God’s love that became flesh in Jesus continues to become flesh whenever any of us help those in need with our prayers, presence, gifts and service.

Prayer: Dear God, may we never grow weary in showing your love to others through our words and deeds. As Jesus taught us, we pray, ‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be your name, your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven. Give us today our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we also have forgiven our debtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.’ Amen