A Reminder of the Impact the Smallest Gift Can Make

Every year at Christmas time, churches and other organizations host giving trees and ask us to select someone from the tree and buy them a Christmas gift. Everyone wants the children, but the reality is, if you can't get help for your children at Christmas, you're not really looking. A multitude of organizations gather donations for toys. Nearly every time you make a purchase you're asked to make a donation or purchase a toy for children in need. God bless them each and every one. Isn't Christmas for kids? This year however, I vowed I would select an adult in addition to a child. Yes, like most people I wanted to feel the joy of making a child's Christmas brighter. But I didn't want to forget the forgotten.

The man I selected had been hosted by someone from a homeless shelter. He asked for two things: a pillow and two towels. I knew nothing about him except that he wanted a pillow, maybe for the times he wouldn't be in the shelter and he wanted to be clean. I couldn't bear the thought that he had nothing and would only receive the meager gifts he had requested. Off I went. My list included a battery-operated radio, toiletries and tasty, healthy (and some not so healthy) snacks.

It didn't seem like enough. It didn't seem meaningful. So I decided to write him a letter. I told him that I hoped he always found a safe and warm place to stay if there was no room in the shelter. I told him I hoped when he was hungry, that there would always be someone willing to feed him. I told him that my Christmas wish for him was the gift of hope. Hope that things would improve in his life, hope that he would find love, hope that he would be reunited with whatever family he had. I told him that I was praying for him and asked him to pray for my family.

The homeless, especially the men, are often forgotten at Christmas. Some believe them all to be alcoholics and drug addicts. But sometimes, behind an alcoholic is a man, who as a child, had such unimaginable things done to him that he can never forget. Sometimes behind a drug addict is a man, who in service to his country, had to do things that haunt his every waking moment. Sometimes behind a homeless man is someone who lost his job and never found another one. How do you get hired when you have no address or phone number to put on an application? How do you get to Target or Wal-Mart when you don't have a bike, much less a car? No one chooses to be homeless. But sometimes the cycle is endless and it's hard to find the road home.

This year, consider the homeless. It won't be the gift that counts. It will be knowing that someone, just one single person, cares.

During the Christmas season, the best gift you can give yourself is the joy of knowing you have helped someone else. The gift doesn't have to be grand. Even those who have little to spare can always find something to share. To some, a gift of so little is a lot. To some, it's all they've got.

Let this video remind us of the impact the smallest gift can make.

Every year at Christmas time, churches and other organizations host giving trees and ask us to select someone from the tree and buy them a Christmas gift. Everyone wants the children, but the reality is, if you can't get help for your children at Christmas, you're not really looking. A multitude of organizations gather donations for toys. Nearly every time you make a purchase you're asked to make a donation or purchase a toy for children in need. God bless them each and every one. Isn't Christmas for kids? This year however, I vowed I would select an adult in addition to a child. Yes, like most people I wanted to feel the joy of making a child's Christmas brighter. But I didn't want to forget the forgotten.