The Spirit of Christmas

Last night I was blessed to volunteer at the Salvation Army's Angel Tree at our local mall. My 7 year old was at dance class and my 5 year old had to accompany me since big sister and dad were working. I told him to pack some toys so he wouldn't be bored (he ignored this and brought one very small library book on butterflies that I knew wasn't going to last five minutes into my 2 hour shift. I thought I could delay his boredom by stopping at Chick Fil A and getting him a milkshake. We arrived to the designated spot and entered chaos. Bags were overflowing the are where the volunteers were signing out angels and bikes were everywhere. Fortunately, for me, an experienced volunteer arrived and knew everything needed to be moved to the back of the vacant store so the bags could be easily loaded by the Salvation Army Pick Up Team/Truck. I started moving bags and bikes and my little guy asked if he could help. I told him sure, I was positive he would get bored after a few minutes but that little guy never stopped moving bags and bikes with me...I walked with the bags, he ran. Once we got the bags moved he would stand by the people dropping off more bags and bags and he would run them over to the pickup area. M learned all about the Spirit of Giving when he saw what people were donating for children, special needs, and Senior Centers. We saw people fill more than one bag and attach a bike with it...there wasn't a miserly bag to be found. One couple in their eighties adopted 32 angels and the trucks had to go pick up the gifts since they couldn't bring them to the mall collection center. The bags filled their small home. A teacher adopted 6 angels and we know teachers do not make a lot of money but this act of giving made them feel blessed. By the end of my 2 hour shift, I saw so much giving that I decided the world wasn't such a bad place after all. People aren't all bad like you would believe after one viewing of the evening news or one reading of the morning newspaper. There really are more good people than evil people, they just don't make the evening news....and M and myself saw more Christmas in one 2 hour shift than we probably will see for the rest of this Christmas Season. The Spirit of Giving is real, it just doesn't make the evening news too often.