Some days the shoebox work for Operation Christmas Child can seem almost like digging ditches. There's a lot of manual labor involved and we joke that we do 'shoebox workouts' as we haul loads of items and sort and stack them into our storage facility. Twice in the past week I loaded 63 cartons of crayons (3024 boxes) into my car at Wal-Mart and then unloaded them again. Today I spent four hours in a hot storage container sorting cartons full of shirts into the proper age and gender groups.
But as I read 2 Kings 3: 17-18 I realized that I want to be digging ditches in another sense, too. "This is what the Lord says: Make this valley full of ditches. For this is what the Lord says: You will see neither wind nor rain, yet this valley will be filled with water and you, your cattle and your other animals will drink. This is an easy thing in the eyes of the Lord"
It is an EASY THING for God to fulfill His promises and I won't even be able to figure out how He does it. He promises to meet my every need for every shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. He just wants me to prepare for His blessings in faith--to do the hard work of digging the ditches to contain those blessings.
So when we scour stores for sales and haul and wrap donated shoeboxes and sort and carry and store all the items we're really just digging ditches to prepare to receive the water of God's blessings.
It's an easy thing for Him to fill those boxes with blessings. We just have to dig the ditches to get them ready.
wow, thanks for commenting on my blog!! i love OCC and this will be my first year working with them and i am beyond excited! i love your blog and look forward to watching GOD work!! how amazing it is to see it all unfold! my dream is to one day be able to go and hand deliever the shoe boxes too! good luck and i will be praying for you!
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