They also have a project catalogue with ways for ordinary people like us to help. You can put together school backpacks, hygiene kits, or layette bundles for babies who have nothing. This year, we chose to use some puppy money to do projects for CAM. The girls were very excited about putting together layette bundles for a Christmas gift for Jesus. Here we are shopping at Walmart for the necessary items.
The catalogue had a list of exactly what needed to be in each bundle: six diapers, a large baby blanket and a receiving blanket, diaper pins, plastic pants, two onesies, two sleepers of different sizes, two pairs of socks, and a baby cap. They had to be new because of customs regulations in certain countries. The girls are choosing blankets.
It's hard to get pictures to be in order on this blog. In the next post, there are pictures of us putting the layettes together. THe girls put theirs for baby girls together with a friend, and my Sunday School class then put together two bundles for baby boys. On Christmas Sunday, after class when we sometimes go up front to sing or say a verse, my class went up front with the bundles. I wanted them to have a way to feel that they were giving the gifts to Jesus for Christmas. There was already a manger for the evening program, and we had put straw in it. Now the children are ready to go up to lay their gifts in the manger, just as if it were truly for baby Jesus. And I assured them that indeed it WAS for Jesus, because He said that if we did anything in love for one of His brethren, we were doing it for Him.
Here the children have laid their bundles in the manger, and we are getting ready to kneel at the manger to pray for the babies and their mothers and daddies who would receive the bundles. The whole congregation joined us as we prayed. More than one person was touched or moved to tears with this simple time of giving to Jesus.
I was concerned that perhaps some would think we were flaunting our giving. Doesn't the Bible say not to let your left hand know what your right hand is doing? Didn't Jesus condemn the Pharisees for doing their alms to be seen of men? Didn't He say we should pray in secret? Yes, He did. But at the same time, He said, "Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." He also said, "I will therefore that men pray everywhere, lifting up holy hands without wrath and doubting." It is all about the spirit in which you give. If you are standing on street corners, praying or giving so people will see you and glorify you, you are wrong. But if you do something to bring glory to your Father in heaven, that is acceptable to God.One reason I put these pictures and this project on this blog is to encourage and inspire any of you who are reading this, to consider doing something similar each Christmas. If Christmas is really about Jesus, how about actually treating Christmas that way? How about actually giving gifts to someone in real need who can't repay you? So often we only give gifts to those who will give back to us. But what about making sure we are doing something JUST for Jesus? This year, this is something we did, and we were SOO thrilled to do it.
