From The Pastor’s Pen – By Brian Horrobin
Throughout the year, and not just at Christmas, our friends at The Salvation Army and St. Vincent de Paul make appeals to our community to help them stock the shelves of their food bank.
The needs in our community are both great and ongoing.
It is easy for us to become indifferent to these frequent appeals, especially when we are not in the position of need.
King Solomon had some wise words addressing this subject in Proverbs 22:9: “A generous man will himself be blessed, for he shares his food with the poor.”
We sometimes withhold from sharing from our means because we fear that we may end up being in need ourselves.
Such thinking, however, reveals a heart that does not trust the Lord for provision.
A number of years ago a man came and knocked at my door.
He reminded me that a couple of years earlier I had given him some groceries as well as helped him with some of his bills.
He explained that the Lord had blessed him since that time and now he wanted to give back and help someone else in need.
This is exactly the attitude we should take when it comes to opportunities to reach out and help others.
The pandemic crisis has certainly heightened our awareness that there are needy people in our midst.
Let’s take every opportunity to share the blessings the Lord has given us with those within arm’s reach.
