Not Feasible

 

I am so glad we don't serve a God of the feasible.

On Friday and Saturday we had our packing party core team doing setup for this week's packing of Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes. By God's grace we were able to complete setup in record time so we began packing boxes. Praise God we have 2,040 in the truck already!

In the midst of the day of packing I had a little conversation with a young man who is experiencing our packing for the first time. He's a family friend of one of our team members and drove 5.5 hours to come work with us. He asked me what our goal was for the number of shoeboxes to pack this week and when I told him it's 17,000 he answered, "That's not feasible!"

His words have been rolling around in my head so I looked up the definition of the word 'feasible' and it's "possible to do easily or conveniently."

Well, by that definition pretty much anything in our Operation Christmas Child world is not feasible because not much of it is easy or convenient.

This morning I'm thinking how glad I am we don't serve a God of the feasible. 

Is it feasible that God would provide almost all the items we needed to pack 22,000 boxes before the pandemic hit? 

Is it feasible that one casual contact by a team member would result in a donor going online to search out Operation Christmas Child and make contact with our regional office so he could donate a truckload of fillers? 

Is it feasible that a man I barely know would drive across the state with a truck full of clothing items to donate?

Is it feasible that one team member could singlehandedly find and purchase more than 13,000 Beanie Babies this year?

Is it feasible that one team member also could put together 22,000 plus school packs in her home?

Is it feasible that another team member completed 6000 jump ropes and sorted and stored countless bins of clothing?

Is it feasible that one team member secured and financed the storage of two truckloads full of items? 

Is it feasible that a small team of 18 members (only 10 or so able to be active year-round and most of them over the age of 60) would be able to orchestrate the packing of 22,000 shoeboxes in 6 days in one small area with only 20 people at a time in the midst of a global pandemic?

The answer is a resounding "NO". This young man saw the truth. None of this is feasible.

BUT our God is not a God of the feasible. Our God is a God of the impossible. And we stand on tiptoe to see Him do it again. 

ps--this cute bear is our mascot for this 2020 Pandemic Packing Party and he is reminding us to "Rise up and build!"