The Miracle of a Gift

I saw their little faces on a table for an organization that encourages people to do monthly child sponsorships. So many of them! So young and innocent and beautiful - all without enough food to sustain them. A lot of them from countries where starvation is a very real threat.

And my heart was overwhelmed.

I began researching the subject of orphans and found that there are roughly 153,000,000 orphans in the world. That's more than the population of a lot of countries. In the USA alone there are over 400,000 children in foster care, with over 100,000 of those waiting to be adopted.

And my heart was overwhelmed.

I read about the refugees in Africa and the Middle East and their terrible living conditions. They have seen unspeakable evils and suffered incredible losses. These people often have no home to return to and no country that wants them. They don't have a lot of hope. And there are not just a few of them - over 65,000,000 across the globe!

And my heart is overwhelmed.

I know there are millions of people dying every day without hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Many people groups don't even have a Bible in their own language. People who have never heard that there is hope and there is a Savior.

And I am overwhelmed.

The task seems so overwhelming that I began to think there is no hope. I look at the picture of the child that we sponsor through Compassion International, and know that there are millions more needing sponsors. I wonder how sponsoring one child is even a drop in the bucket of need! Is it really doing any good?

Then one night, I read a story. An old story. It was the story of a large hungry crowd that needed supper after a long day. Apparently, no one intended to be out that long because only one person in the group had any food. It was a boy. A boy with ONE lunch. Not thousands of lunches to feed thousands of people, but one lunch. The boy took his one lunch and gave it to Jesus. I'm sure he was hungry too, and maybe thought he would go home hungry, but he gave it anyway. Jesus took the gift, blessed the food, and fed over five thousand people with it!

I felt like I was reading this story for the first time, as I realized this boy gave what he had.....to Jesus. He didn't worry about the fact that he didn't have enough food for everyone, he gave the food he did have. Jesus did the rest. And, boy did he! One meal became thousands because of One. Small. Gift.

The next thought I had was, "Is this Jesus here in the book of John - this miracle working Jesus - the same Jesus that I claim to serve today? Is He really the same? And if so, can He work the same kind of miracles with the gifts that I give Him that He did with a little boy's lunch?"

Friends, my Jesus - this God I serve - claims to be the same yesterday, today and forever. If He is what He claims to be, then He will most assuredly take the gifts we give Him, and multiply them into something phenomenal! Just like He did over two thousand years ago.

We're coming into the Christmas season, which is the season for giving. In fact, sometimes the needs and opportunities that arise can be overwhelming to us at this time of year because there are so many! To name a few -  Operation Christmas Child, The Salvation Army, local food pantries that are feeding hungry families for the holidays, Angel Trees that provide Christmas gifts for needy children, and oh, so many more! All providing us the opportunity to be Jesus on earth and share what God has blessed us with. So many needs!

So, what if you can only afford to make one shoebox for Operation Christmas Child this year? Is it worth it? Can one box really make a difference? If it's a gift given to Jesus, I believe it not only can, but will.

Maybe times are tough and you can only buy food for one meal for a family this year. Will it just be a drop in the ocean?  Is it worth the effort? I don't know, but I remember a true story about one meal becoming over five thousand...

Maybe this is a great year for you and you can fill ten shoeboxes, or twenty, or one hundred. Maybe you can make a large donation to a great need in Jesus' name.

But, maybe you can't. Does the size of our gift matter? Or is what matters the fact that we are so grateful for what Christ has done for us that we can't help but give of what we can to Him?

This is the miracle of a gift - We give to Jesus because He has given so much to us, and Jesus takes our gifts, no matter how big or small, and makes them into something GREATER than we could ever imagine!

Don't believe me?

Just ask a little boy who gave his lunch to Jesus.

This year, give generously to Christ, and together we truly can make a difference in our world.