VeggieTales merged with real life this morning.
Jairus practically has the newest VeggieTale movie, Saint Nicholas – a Story of Joyful Giving, memorized since he has watched it every day since his birthday. I don’t want to give away the story, but part of it applies to today.
As a young man, Nicholas sails the world trying to find something that will make him happy. Eventually he ends up at the Nativity Chapel in Bethlehem. There he meets a nun who is giving food to the poor. Nicholas asks if feeding the poor makes her happy. She replies that she does it because she is happy. She goes on to explain that she can love because God loves her and she can give because God gave. Well, Nicolas gets it! He then goes on to give because God gave (part of the legend of Santa Clause). Of course, you should watch the whole movie. The VeggieTales add song, dance, and humor to make the story enjoyable and catchy.
So, back to my point. Today VeggieTales merged with real life. This morning, our family took part in delivering gifts and food boxes with the Sharing CHRISTmas ministry of our church. For the last several years we have purchased gifts as part of the ministry. The last couple of years, Joe helped deliver gifts – he is especially needed because of his Spanish skills. But this year we felt like Jairus was old enough that we could also be part of the delivery teams. We explained to Jairus that we were being like Saint Nicholas – we were giving because God loves us and gave to us. Jairus helped at each house carrying in the red gift bag filled with a Bible, devotional book, and information about the church. He also helped us put gifts under the trees. Our family delivered gifts and food boxes to 3 of the 52 families “adopted” by our church.
At our church, CHRISTmas actually starts several months before now. In the late summer/early fall the church starts to collect peanut butter and jelly, cake mixes, and other items to put into food boxes. Then after Thanksgiving the church members have the opportunity to “adopt” kids by buying a couple of Christmas gifts for them. The Sharing CHIRSTmas committee gets names and information of kids in need from the local elementary schools. It is a huge undertaking to have everything organized and done in such a way to protect the families involved. This year it meant providing for 170 children in our area! I don’t blog about this to brag on us or even really our church. It was just a neat few hours we spent this morning as a family. It was honestly refreshing. I wouldn’t be disappointed at all if this became a Christmas tradition for us. It is pretty cool when the 3 of us can all serve together. It is a great way to remember and put into the practice the truth Jairus sings about with VeggieTales…. “I can love because God loves me. I can give because God gave.”
