Morning Thought
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Good morning. Most of us who pack Christmas shoeboxes say the worst
part is covering the box and the lid. I know that I for
I remember being moved to tears on one of my first visits to
When we are distributing the boxes the children all want the biggest
and most attractive looking boxes because they expect if the box is bigger and
better on the outside it will be the better on the inside too. Sometimes as we
give the boxes out we can see the children looking at the pile of boxes and
calculating if their box will be that smaller one or the bigger one, the
brightly coloured or the one that is not decorated – and we can see the look of
joyful anticipation or slight disappointment in their eyes.
The social workers tell us that it can cause bad feeling even problems
among the pensioners if one receives a much larger box than everyone else. That
is how highly valued each shoebox gift is – to the recipient it is so very
important. To avoid possible disappointment we in Mustard Seed ask people to
use boxes that are all more or less the same size and to decorate them.
Often when we visit the pensioners we find they have saved their
decorated shoebox also. In April a little old lady carefully got out the shoebox
we gave her last year – the contents were gone and she now used it to keep her
papers in and among the contents of that box were the 2 Christmas cards that
had been in the Christmas shoeboxes she had had over the last 2 years – she did
not understand what they said, but they were treasured possessions for her to
keep and to get out and look at and to show to visitors.
A couple of years ago at our Romanian kindergarten, a very smartly
dressed young boy collected his shoebox. He looked so smart that I felt sure he
was not in real need and afterwards I questioned the social worker about
whether the boy should really have had a box. He replied “I will take you to
his house – he lives with his grandmother, his parents deserted him”. The house
was a little mud brick two room dwelling with a wood-burning stove for warmth
and cooking, we squelched through the mud to get there. Once back home the
smart clothes were put away – I learnt they been on our previous aid lorry.
Through the interpreter the boy explained “I wore my best clothes today because
I knew I would be receiving a shoebox”.
In the Bible Samuel the prophet who lived about 3000 years ago said
“Man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord God looks at the heart”. He learnt the importance of not making
judgements about people based their outward appearance. It is important for us
today to remember that in our dealings with other people. With Christmas
shoeboxes the beautifully covered box on the outside should indicate that there
are good contents inside.
This year in Mustard Seed we are offering something new. If you feel
you have not got the time but that you want to send a Christmas shoebox, then
we offer to decorate the box and fill it on your behalf if you will donate the
money to cover the cost.
There are numerous other charities – most much bigger than