The Christmas Joy

Many of us are very familiar with the Christmas Story about what took place on the first Christmas night. For the small children who receive their first Christmas gifts in the form of Bread of Life Shoeboxes, they are in fact experiencing their first Christmas. They have never heard the Christmas story nor have they ever experienced the tradition of gift giving during the Christmas season. For them the story is fresh and new and they are amazed that people who have never met them cared enough to give them not just one gift but a box of gifts.

A big part of the joy of Christmas is the joy of giving and there is no more joyful giving than blessing a child with their first gift. This year, like each year, we have newly arrived children both in our Home and Feeding Centers. Each new child experiences the love of Christians celebrating Christ for the first time. But this is just the beginning, as time goes on these children will get to experience something else they have never had the chance to know: security. Not security in their new home or food or the loving adults surrounding them, but our hope is that they come to understand the security that is found in Christ our Savior.

Each loving hand that packs a shoebox or donates money for us to pack a box here is reaching out to a little one who Jesus loves. Thank you for joining us in this year’s Shoebox Drive. With every shoebox packed and given to a child we are doing His Kingdom work.

Raeghan Bryant