Morning Thought 2 Tuesday October 3^rd

Good morning. Maybe I should apologise for reminding you that Christmas is coming, though we can see signs in the shops now.

I hope you can collect one of the Mustard Seed Jersey appeal leaflets from parish halls or Les Quennevais sports centre as there are some changes from previous years about the shoebox contents.

But the one thing that remains unchanged is that most of shoeboxes from Jersey will be given to needy children and they will be SO THRILLED! Almost certainly for each child it will be their only gift this Christmas.

I remember years ago at one little Romanian school I was surprised at how smartly dressed some of the children were.

"Are they really in need?" I asked.

The social worker explained "The children knew you were coming with shoeboxes and it is so very important they all wore their best clothes". Then he pointed to the most smartly dressed kids and he said, "Those children here who look so smart today are from the poorest families. That is why we gave them a good lot of clothes from Mustard Seeds last aid transport. And you can see they are wearing their best ones today because the shoeboxes are coming”

It reminds me of a verse from the Bible where God said to the prophet Samuel "People judge by outward appearances , but the Lord looks at the person’s thoughts and intentions".

I had got it wrong and misunderstood for I looked at the smart outward appearance and I thought these children didn’t need shoeboxes, but in actual fact they were the most needy. They wore their best clothes to honour the shoeboxes and show how much they valued them.

I do hope you will consider whether you can help us by packing a shoebox for a needy child this year.

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