Count your blessings

We sorted gifts - lots and lots and lots of gifts - for Angel Tree today. It's one of my favorite ministry outreaches ever. I could get lost in the details (I know what you're thinkin', not you, Karen, you NEVER obsess over details!).

We sort by school, then by family, and then we check that all the kids got their gifts. We bag them up like Santa filling his sack, line them all up for delivery and then. The big day - Angel Tree gifts go all over Johnston County (and Wake County) to bless the kids and their families. It is AWESOME!

But the best part happens at 8:15 each delivery day. The families don't know about it. The schools don't know about it. Maybe, much of our church family doesn't know about it. Before we ever deliver those gifts, we stop. And we pray. For each and every family represented there.

That's the best part. Asking God to bless these families through our humble gifts. Thanking him for the opportunity - really, being able to give is an opportunity - to make a difference, no matter how small it might seem, in these families' lives.

Just like the song, The Little Drummer Boy, Christmas is not about the size of the gift. It's not about the price tag. It's about the heart - giving in love and joy to bless someone else. Just like God did that very first Christmas, when Jesus was born.