Very recently I was “blown away” by something so normal I wasn’t sure I was completely in touch with reality. Nosir, nothing like the five-point earthquake a few days ago or the shooting in Ok City, just a normal day. I was given an invitation I should not turn down...so, I didn’t. Herself asked if I wanted to accompany her to the huge “club” store which is near our home. As they usually have samples at the end of most grocery aisles, I said, “of course," and we hopped in the auto and took off. (Wellsir, actually I did not “hop” into the car but I made it on the first try.) We even found a place to park within walking distance of the front door. We didn’t have to call Uber to take us or anything.Then, as herself was gathering her basket and thinking about the grandkids not getting much of an inheritance, I stood inside and looked around. That alone was unsettling but later when we moved to the food section I almost melted. There was more food in that one large shop than some smaller countries have and I mean that with little exaggeration. It was almost too much as I thought of several students I had who came to school with no breakfast and stuffed themselves as much as possible because they probably wouldn’t get super. There was no supper to get. This place was overwhelming when I remembered back to one day when snow closed our school but I naturally went anyway. (There were music scores to study and hard spots in our contest music to prepare for.) As I pulled in to the school parking lot I could see over to the front of the elementary school. A whole group of elementary kids were there wanting to get in as they had walked from home. After leaving their books, etc. in their room they would have gone to the cafeteria for breakfast. No breakfast and no lunch that day. It has been more than 30 years and it still hurts.
But what hurts worse is seeing posts about if we give wild animals food it will make them dependent and they will starve if we don’t feed them. First, that is not true and second, a six year old child seldom ever goes into the forest to hunt something to eat. No, I am not going to argue the point as it has been mostly settled about feeding school children. Only the people who have never heard a fourth grade girl tell you on Monday morning that she hasn’t eaten since noon Friday. For whatever reason, she didn’t eat and there is a super abundance of food in America.
Most Americans are generous and want the rest of the world to do as well as we “Yanks” are doing. Recently I read a memory from an older German who said some small town still remembered the American soldiers and how good they were. These soldiers gave of what they had to the people, especially the older women according to the memory of the author. Up to that time, WWII was the second bloodiest war the U S soldiers were ever in. After the shooting stopped these men gave of their rations to help those who didn’t have anything. These were enemies day before yesterday but now they were hungry and without so our soldiers fed them. There is a book somewhere that talks about something like that.
Also in last week’s newspaper, a story told about the people of Aleppo after the Iraqi army had chased out IS. The people had been starved by the IS monsters and the Iraqi soldiers were sharing their food with the people. Number one, an invading army individual does not carry a great deal of food with him. Mostly he carries ammunition as he should. So these men probably went hungry but battered civilians now had a chance to live. The day after our trip to the club store a newspaper article said that John 3:15 charity did not have nearly enough turkeys to feed the men and people who would be there for Thanksgiving. Herself immediately dispatched to Aldi’s and we will do our part. Dozens of others undoubtably will also.
All over the U.S. churches, clubs, etc will be serving dinners to whoever shows up. Many, many people will be working in kitchens, serving others, washing other people’s dishes and just being grateful they can eat the other 364 days of the year. That is great and wonderful and really what this holiday season should be about. I just find it so impossible when selfish people can see a hungry child and say horribly selfish things. I just want to scream, "It Is A Child!"
Your response is welcome at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
