MORNING THOUGHT 4 Thursday
January 6th 2011
Good
morning. We have recently come back from Mustard Seed Jersey’s Christmas trip
to Romania. This morning I want to share some more of our
experiences with you.
During
the trip I have lost count of how many times we have been into schools and
distributed Christmas shoeboxes to the children. Sometimes the children sang
for us, on occasions they had learnt something specially
in English for us. Usually the timing was arranged that we would arrive at the
school a short time before the children went home. We were amazed at how
restrained most of them were in not opening their shoeboxes in school but
taking them home intact. Often as we travelled we saw children obviously on
their way home from school with their shoeboxes in their hands and as they
recognised us they waved at us.
In
one group of villages the distribution of Christmas shoeboxes was such an important event that
the Mayor came to each distribution. Afterwards he took us all out to a restaurant for a traditional
Romanian lunch with specialities of the area.
I had taken some Jersey
calendars to give out to people in Romania and as I had an extra one so I
decided to give it to the Mayor. We stopped at the office and I went in. To my
intense relief the secretary spoke excellent English and immediately knew who I
was. She had heard all about Mustard Seed Jersey from the Mayor and also from
her mother who was a teacher in one of the schools.
She
told me how thrilled the children had been and how the day after we had visited
that school many of the children had brought some items from their shoeboxes back to school to show their teacher and in or two
cases to ask for a translation of enclosed letters or cards. For me this was
wonderful additional and unexpected confirmation of how special the Christmas
shoeboxes are to the children receiving them.
Today
is Epiphany. In the church’s calendar it is the day we remember the coming of
God fearing wise men to worship the baby Jesus. It is the time we
celebrate the light of Christ going out beyond the Jewish nation, as we think
how the wise men from the east recognised the significance of the star and followed
it till they found the house where the Mary and Joseph and the infant Jesus
were. When they found him they knelt down and gave him costly gifts, which had
religious significance and were no doubt very useful when the family fled to
escape Herod’s massacre of baby boys which followed soon after that.
In
our busy lives we are often too busy to allow space and time for God. Today we remember the wise men brought gifts
to the Baby Jesus. Today Jesus still welcomes gifts from people like you and me. Most of all He
longs to receive our love. So today take time today to give Jesus the gift He
most desires – the gift of your time and your love. A good way to start may be
a simple prayer telling Him you love Him and want to make time for Him.
Have
a good day and God bless you.