Steve showed a video this morning and laid some heavy stuff on our hearts about rethinking our Christmas gifting. "Americans will spend $469 billion on Christmas this year." We have sooo much stuff that we have to store it in extra rooms, our basements, attics, and garages. Is that not enough? Do we need more? We have so much that we take our old clothes to thrift stores and give them away?
What if you had nothing? No family, no money, barely any food to eat. Now imagine a 7-year old in that situation.
Webster’s dictionary defines the word orphan as a child deprived by death or abandonment of one or both parents; one deprived of protection. Do you know how many orphans there are in this world? One hundred forty three million. If you lined up the 143,000,000 orphans shoulder to shoulder do you know they would reach around the earth over 2 times?
I know what you're doing. You hear that number, 143 million, and it numbs you. You think to yourself, I can't possibly begin to make a dent in that number, why even try? And it saddens you for a moment but, another minute goes by and you've forgotten them already. It's easy - out of sight, out of mind. So, I challenge you to watch this video...
Now, you're thinking $35 isn't much? It's $1.16 a day. Say it again, one dollar and sixteen cents a day. It's a soda, a bottle of water at the gas station. It's a couples' night at the movies. Two pizzas from Domino's. You get the picture, it doesn't take much. Imagine if every family sponsored one child, just one for $35 a month. What if your heart broke and you sponsored 3 for a total of $105?
What would the world be like if we gave instead of trying to hold on to everything we have so tightly? Imagine how blessed our lives would be if we gave freely, cheerfully even? Imagine, instead of stuff, this Christmas, stuff we don't need, we gave the gift of life to a child?
(By the way, today is nationwide Orphan Sunday.)
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