Thinking of others

Many moons ago when I was a very young girl (maybe 7/8) my siblings and I received some very special gifts from Father Christmas. As was common in our childhood my parents were struggling financially. Someone in the street we lived mentioned this to the Lions and a sack appeared on our doorstep with toys for our stockings. I have always remembered this vividly and have tried whenever I can to pass on the good deed. Sometimes it will be money in a tin, for many years it was shoeboxes full of useful things for children in Romania etc.
Today was the toy service at the Sallies - an opportunity for the congregation to bring toys which will then be distributed to families like mine used to be. And even though I have very little myself at the moment I have enough in my belly and think back to that time over 40 years ago when I might not have got a Christmas present either. So I bought a couple of wee toys from Tesco and added them to this display.
It warms my heart that a still relatively small congregation can be so generous.
As an added note - we wouldn't have gone without toys/presents. Thankfully my mum had an extended family who always made sure we had something to open on the day. I wonder perhaps about this being what is missing in our modern society. Without grandparents and aunts and uncles we would I am sure have been homeless more than once and almost certainly in care. So few families stay close nowadays so there is no fallback.
I thank the Lord every day for the blessings of my family and friends who to this day provide me with emotional strength as well as financial support.
If I can pay it forward - I do