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Previous Challenge Entry
Topic: Satisfied (10/11/04)
TITLE: Open Our Hands Wide
By Susan Coltrane-Dunn
10/17/04
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With Christmas just around the corner we will soon be venturing out to purchase the traditional things like turkey, ham, and pies. Shopping for Christmas trees and buying gifts for friends and family. Some will not be so fortunate. We go about our routine every year never really stopping to consider those that will wake up Christmas morning with no gifts or a tree to put them under. We may stop to think of those who won’t be getting anything for Christmas each year but that is as far as it gets. I my self am guilty of that.

I think about the mothers and fathers who work hard all year round to provide food and clothing for their children that don’t have enough money to shop for the holidays to buy their children gifts or gifts for their spouse. Some children do not know what it feels like to be so excited that they can’t sleep because they want to find out what Santa has brought them. They will see other children with new toys and new clothes and wonder why they were forgotten.

In the little town that I live in, on Christmas day a member of the Sheriff 's Department takes a child that is not as fortunate as others to a nearby department store like Wal-Mart and lets that child pick out whatever he or she wants. Now we all know that this has got to make the child feel special, not to mention how it makes the Deputies feel when they see that radiant smile on that little one's face. For a child to know that someone thought of them on Christmas day and took the time to do something for them makes them feel very special.

It breaks my heart to hear of families who have went through the Christmas holidays without receiving gifts or being able to give to their loved ones. In the past I have taken a name of a child who was not going to be getting anything for Christmas and purchased a gift for that child saying it was from Santa. But I didn't do it every year, and the years that I didn't would make me feel displeased with myself. So I have made a promise to myself starting this Christmas. I am going to try to make at least one or two children happy this Christmas and every year after but then I got to thinking about the mothers and fathers. They can't be left out either. We have to remember what Jesus said? “Whatever you do for the least of My brethren you do for Me.” I can not give to everyone but with God's help I will do my best to give to at least one family this Christmas. But it shouldn’t end there. We need to remember them year round, not just on the holidays. By doing that I will have received my gift –the satisfaction of knowing that at least one family hasn't been forgotten this year. My heart will then be satisfied.