Got an email this morning from someone who lives in the neighborhood and said, "We just bought a new fake Christmas tree and was wondering if your church would have a use for the old one."
This should read, "We have an old worn-out fake Christmas tree that is in a condition that is too sorry for us to want to put it up in our house. We thought maybe you'd want to put it up in God's house instead."
Sure. Bring all your crap here and drop it off. Reminds me of the days when we used to collect cast-off clothing for the poor. People would have a garage sale and bring whatever didn't sell and throw it on our threshold. The gentleman (truly a gentle man) who came to pick the items up for the organization we collected for said something profound one day. "You know, Pastor," he said, "when I pick up in poor neighborhoods the clothes are clean, usable, folded and put into bags to make them easy to pick up. When I pick up here the clothes are dirty and worn out and usually have to be thrown away."
The poor know what the poor need and give graciously. The wealthy believe the poor should be happy with whatever is cast their direction.
