What a difference a tree makes!

Personally, Christmas is my favorite holiday and I love that the season seems to stretch from Thanksgiving to New Years. The longer the better! I'm always the last one to throw out the tree. :-) I've already spent weeks listening to Christmas songs and developing a strategy of how best to string up my lights. But for many of the women and children that enter The Sheepfold's doors Christmas has not been something they have looked forward to each year. Christmas has been just another day to feel alone, neglected, wounded, and broken.

Last Saturday a group of 5 adults came to the shelter for a couple hours. That's not unusual as there are frequent volunteers and interns who sacrifice their time to invest in the lives of our moms and their children. But this group brought a little something extra with their hearts full of love. They brought our house a live Christmas tree, lights, a cake, carols, and the Christmas story. They spent their time jumping right in and getting to know our big family! The kids just ate up the attention and love that this group radiated.

We had already decorated the whole house, decorated cookies, and even put up our not-too-shabby artificial tree. The shelter already looked festive and bright. I don't want it to sound like I'm hating on the fake trees. Some of them are beautiful and are even scented like a real one... So what changed when we moved the fake tree upstairs and set the fresh one up in the living room? It wasn't the tree that was so wonderful. It was the smiles, warmth, transparency, and love of Jesus that overflowed from them! It was CONTAGIOUS! Pure joy was what was ignited when they came and it stayed after they left.

I am so grateful our moms and kids got to experience some of what Christmas is all about. Letting Love (yes with a capital L) reign in your heart is a funny thing. Once you've let that Love rule you will not want to go back to life without it. A natural response to recognizing and receiving that Love is the willingness to share it. You cannot help but give it away in return. One of my favorite passages that I was sharing with our mom's a while back is Luke 6:38: Give, and it will be given to you. Good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be put into your lap. For with the measure you use it will be measured back to you.

Merry Christmas, Peace and Blessings!

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