A modern Christmas miracle story
A little girl named Angel stepped up to the microphone in kid’s church last year just before Christmas. She was the cutest kid ever. I remember thinking of “Betty Lou Who” from The Grinch that stole Christmas as she stood biting the sleeve on her dress. She mustered up all the courage she had to stand in front of the much bigger kids. Angel wanted to pray.
Now little Angel was especially poor, and unknown to her, we had already determined to sponsor her whole family for Christmas that year. So when she made her Christmas prayer request, Leanna and I were really listening.
“Thank you Jesus.”, She said through her little mouth. “I like Christmas and I also like Hanna Montana.”
At that, some of the wild bunch as I call them, which we bus in from the projects in Ft Worth, busted out into rude laughter. “Hannah Montana is gay!” One of the mean boys shouted. Another said something about hand grenades.
Angel, undaunted because she has several big brothers her self, just stood there with her eyes closed and her hands out like she expected a Hannah Montana shirt to fall from the ceiling.
“Boys! You will be respectful of miss angle’s prayer time and we never make fun of other people’s prayers. There is nothing wrong with Hanna Montana and besides”, I said as I picked Angel up, “Jesus thinks Angel is awesome and I happen to know she is one of His very favorites.” She agreed and we went on to the mayhem that tends to be modern children’s church these days.
Now the plan was of course to make sure that when we got all of her family their Christmas toys, Angel was loaded up with Hanna Montana stuff. It turns out, God being God, had a much greater plan as He so often does.
Besides leading at Open Door Ministries I also have the privledge of running a food bank and sometimes we get calls from big distribution centers. Unsolicited, the good people at Wal-Mart donated a truck load of goodies but we wouldn’t know what we were receiving until it got to the warehouse. When Andy Daly opened up the back doors of that big truck, we all began to laugh our heads off. Angel had prayed in an eighteen wheeler of Hannah Montana clothes! Everything Hannah Montana you can imagine and all brand new. It was amazing.
Now I know that Christmas isn’t about getting toys so save your religious letters for a pharasee that has time to read it. But know for certain, that God uses giving to demonstrate his goodness towards us. In the Kingdom, giving is a ministry. For God so loved the world He gave, and I hope you know how to finish the rest of that sentence.
Last week we were able to host 100 local families in Christmas giving and emergency help. This week we are in Brownsville Texas and Matomoros Mexico giving away more than 3000 backpacks stuffed full of the best toys we’ve ever been able to give away. We do that to demonstrate God as the greatest giver of all.
2 Corinthians 9:15
Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!
Reach the Brewer and find out more at www.frewshfromthebrewer.com, www.troybrewer.com & www.opendoorministries.org
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