Love in a Box

We had finally filled the shoe box, adding to those to be sent with the others from our church and community for Franklin Graham's "Operation Christmas Child" ministry. We had visited the headquarters in Boone, North Carolina several years ago and found it fascinating. We got there after hours for the tour, but a friendly employee gave us a private tour of the entire operation.

I thought about the restrictions in the box she outlined when packing our own box: No chocolate, nothing perishable and no military toys, to name a few. (I didn't realize the little paratrooper to be tossed in the air to float down in a parachute was a military toy until I saw the word, Army, on the packaging after I had bought it, so I removed it.)

Dropping off our shoe box at the church office, we enjoyed visiting with the receptionist, who was a volunteer that day. Our conversation drifted to where she grew up, which was in a small town known as Shidler. "Shidler!" my husband remarked, then reminisced that his brother, 10 years his senior, used to call on a store there when he had a sales job for a Cracker and Cookie company.

I had heard the story many times of how Howard's older brother would bring home samples of the products he sold. My future husband, 9 or 10 at the time, was treated to the excess merchandise. He remembers lying on his back in the yard and slowly relishing every bite of the unlimited supply of cookies.

While there are no edibles in the shoe boxes mailed to underprivileged children over seas, I can imagine their joy at opening the boxes, exclaiming over and treasuring the contents, even as a young Howard did with the cookies.

Also included in the boxes before they are shipped from the facility in North Carolina are booklets and material with the story of Jesus and the plan of salvation, clearly explained and illustrated on an age-appropriate level for the recipient.

Our gracious guide that day told us many stories that had come back to them as a result of the shoe boxes. In one of them, the sender had included her name and address to a little girl who would receive her box, telling her that she had no children of her own. The child wrote back to her that she had no mother. As more letters and arrangements transpired, the American woman was able to adopt the child and bring her to the United States. A happy ending from a cardboard box carrying a dream come true!