Last night our family had a very special experience together. Our church's annual Christmas outreach is to pack 550 cardboard boxes full of food for needy families within our community. The organizers have set the entire event up to encourage family participation.
Upon arrival 550 boxes are lined up and numbered. Each one contains a checklist of the 25 or so items to be placed inside. Families pack the boxes with goods, then pray for the family that will receive the food and sign a card.
As you might imagine, it was quite chaotic trying to keep the children on task with such an activity while over 200 other people were bustling about around us. Again, their distinct personalities presented unique challenges. Although we packed five boxes as a family, K chose one specific box that was "hers." She took great care to make sure it contained everything it was meant to, but would not help AT ALL with the other four. And any attempt to put anything into her box by anyone else was met with shrieking.
R was my right hand man. Ever the pleaser and the doer, his constant refrain was, "What next, Mommy?" Meanwhile, P, who is far less concerned with competition, rule-following or productivity, was quite creative with his packing...but not quite as precise as necessary. He became Daddy's special helper bringing the items for the boxes to us from the main staging area.The packing and praying was a neat experience in and of itself, but driving by the church this morning as cars were lined up for blocks to receive the boxes took the cake! I explained to the children that somewhere in that long line of cars were five different hungry families who were going to benefit from the boxes we packed.
"Dey are weally going to like the candy canes," R observed.
"And da cookies!" P added.
"Mommy?" K asked. "What will dey do when dis food is all gone? What will dey eat den?"
Sweet, tender girl. Sometimes she is so wild and wide-open, yet under the surface she is incredibly caring, thoughtful, observant and sensitive.
I was touched by her sentiments and reminded of the importance of keeping the "Christmas Spirit" all year.
4 comments:
Your little K's comments blew me away. "...out of the mouth of babes..."
BYW, we were in Barnes & Nobles last evening and ran across a history of the Pink Pig. It was over in the Georgia Books section.
Tee
These...are truly what Christmas memories are made of.
What a powerful tool...to teach our children to serve.....those are truly LIFE changing moments.
You've done well Mamma!!
That's a great way to get the kids involved! I wish we had something like that, but it seems like everything around here requires older hands. And I am anxiously waiting for that day when we can do a service project as a family.
Wow. I'm blinking tears back after reading about K's tender-hearted concern. I believe it's a rare 3-year-old who would pose such a question. What a special girl!
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