Every once in a while someone asks me why I do what I do. I have a husband, 3 children (who are 6, 5, and 4), and I home educate my kids. So why don’t I let someone with a little more time on their hands fill the needs that Hope Chest is filling? There are several answers to this question, but the first is that God asked me to, so I do it! I didn’t hear an audible voice. I didn’t see a flash of lightning in the sky. But I knew that this is a need and I knew that the people that need our help are loved by God. And, I have been there myself.
Five years ago my husband and I and our two boys had very very little. The only things in our home that we had bought ourselves was a couch and a computer. Everything else had either been given to us as a gift or a hand-me-down. None of this bothered me because we had a roof over our head and people in our life that loved us and helped us when we couldn’t afford any other way. We were beyond blessed!
Not once did I feel poor. Until we couldn’t buy gifts for our boys for Christmas. I knew that their grandparents and aunts and uncles could and would provide Christmas gifts, but there was something about not being able to buy them something myself that made me feel very small inside. And I am not talking anything elaborate. We could not even go and buy them a gift for $1. We were at the point of having to choose between diapers and formula.
Around the middle of December a large box filled with wrapped gifts arrived on our front porch. The card only said, “Do not open until Christmas morning.” What a tremendous blessing! But I still had this silent wish to be able to buy my children gifts myself. Then I recieved a certified letter in the mail. A single sheet of paper. On it typed the words, “God is good, All the time.” Wrapped in that sheet of paper was $200 cash. With that cash I was able to buy each of my boys a $5 gift and all the food, diapers and formula that we needed at the time.
To this day we have no idea who sent us those Christmas blessings! But what I do know is that God sent us what we needed when we needed it. We didn’t need the Christmas presents for our kids, but we needed to see that God sees the desires of our hearts. God cares about our secret wishes and desires. On Christmas morning I got to see my children unwrap a bunch of gifts, and I got to be a part of the group of people that provided those for them.
Both blessings will be a part of my story and testimony for the rest of my life. Both blessings are proof to me that God was taking care of my heart when I could do nothing to help myself. I will forever be grateful to whoever sent us those blessings!
The reason I tell you this story is because you can be a part of a story like this. Hope Chest OKC is teaming up with The Tapestry Project to create the Tapestry Family Toy Store. This store will provide a way for families to come and buy Christmas gifts for their children at discounted rates. In order to do this we need new, unwrapped toys to put in our store.
Will you consider being a part of the story?
