The Gospel Opportunities According to TY

If you've been following this blog you know I'm on safari for stuffed animals to put into gift-filled shoeboxes to send to needy children through Operation Christmas Child. Last week God answered prayer in amazing ways and provided 1,058 animals. 367 of them were donated and the rest were purchased on my hunting trips through yard sales, rummage sales and thrift stores.

In my travels I find and purchase hundreds of TY Beanie Babies in mint condition with the tags still on them. My price limit is 25 cents for each of them and I can often find them even lower than that. You can tell that lots of them were part of collections. They have custom-made clear plastic devices attached to protect their heart tags so they can retain their value.

They were carefully selected and purchased mostly by persons seeking to make a profit. One acquaintance of mine has a father who, as a businessman, has made a fortune by clever dealings. He encouraged her to collect something that would appreciate in value and she chose to collect Beanies. Well, a decade later, her collection is worth a fraction of what she invested in it. In fact, I'd pay her 25 cents for each of those $5.00 animals she's packed away in containers.

The exciting thing, though, is that while those collectibles didn't live up to their investment potential monetarily, they can still make an investment for eternity. As fillers in Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes they bring hope and the good news of Jesus to children who need to know that they have eternal value.

The Bible warns against "laying up treasure on earth where moth and rust corrupt" and encourages us to "lay up treasure in heaven". I'm still looking for 7,000 more stuffed animals.

If you have a collection of Beanies, are you willing to invest them for an eternal reward?