The Least of These

Near the end of His ministry Jesus told His followers that when He returns in His glory there will be a great separation of those who know Him and those who don't and somehow which group you're in will be reflected in how you treated others. The point is that how we treat others shows our love for Jesus--especially how we treat "the least of these".

In most of the world you can't get much lower than being a child. So to clothe a child in Jesus' name is like doing it for Jesus Himself. I'm again astounded at the ways God is providing clothing for our Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes this year.

This weekend took me to several K-Mart stores where they offered their winter clearance clothing items for 99 cents each. God gave me quite a haul.

In 2008 at this time I had 1,528 clothing items and last year at this time I had 3,321 (more than twice as many.) But I added up the total this year and it's already 9,338 and when you add in the items that others have purchased for our packing party the total of clothing items must be well over 9,500. That's close to THREE TIMES as many as we had at this point last year.

Just picture thousands of children, each with a new shirt or shoes or pants or a hat given to let them know that God loves them.

What a blessing these will be to 'the least of these' from a God who loves to give. I am seeing once again God keeping the promise He makes in what have become my life verses in IICorinthians 9:10,11 "Now He who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be made rich in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."