As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love. Eph 4:16b NLT
It’s National Collection Week for Samaritan’s Purse Operation Christmas Child. An opportunity to be the heart and hands of Jesus to children and their families across the world. These shoe boxes filled with small gifts reach children, who many have never received a Christmas gift. The most amazing thing about these boxes is how the Lord seems to match the right box with the right child. And when you’re talking 9.1 million boxes given last year alone, that is quite the undertaking. But then again nothing is impossible with our God.
Yesterday we received our first box for the year. As the woman and I spoke about how wonderful of a Christmas blessing this was, she was blown away by the shear number of boxes distributed last year. Tears came to her eyes as she said, “this is the third year I’m doing this, and I always wonder how much of an impact can my little box make.” I shared some stories with her about how the right boxes got to the right child and how entire families accept Jesus and His great salvation, just because of a shoebox filled with gifts.
I began to share with her the impact that one person can have, I mean, look at Jesus Himself. And how Jesus uses small gestures of love and kindness to give people a new life in Him. It made me think of a Sermon Series I did about 10 years ago called The Power of One. I learned how may times throughout history how one individual and one vote could change the direction of history. History is full of accounts of single individuals who have made a difference. Think of the military battles that have turned on the axis of one heroic person. Think of the artists and the contribution of their individual lives, from Michelangelo and da Vinci to Brahms and Beethoven. Think of the scientists, the inventors, the explorers, and the technological experts who have literally changed the course of history. Think of the courageous preachers down through time who have stood alone in the gap and made a difference. The face of the church was changed by significant individuals—men like Augustine, Tyndale, Luther, Calvin, Wesley, Spurgeon, Moody, and Graham, to name only a few.
If you ever think you’re life is insignificant remember what John Kennedy said, “One person can make a difference, and every person should try.” Oh how true that is! Nothing will ever change if we decide to do nothing. Perhaps this poem will drive the point home,
I am only one,
But still I am one.
I cannot do everything;
but still I can do something;
and because I cannot do everything
I will not refuse to do the something that I can do. – Anonymous
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