Charlottesville, Virginia

It wasn’t exactly a Christmas jar… but, like Christmas, the spirit lives on year-round! In January this year, the jar on the kitchen counter had already been full for months, and frankly… it was in the way. Meanwhile, every day on the way home from work, I stopped at a light where folks panhandle. I never carry cash, and I often feel sad that, amidst all my blessings, I haven’t planned ahead to help someone out. One day it occurred to me there could be a solution to the jar problem *and* the planning problem. So the jar moved from the kitchen counter to the bench by the front door. For a few more months. Finally one day, that jar made it to the car. And then… all the panhandlers disappeared. Until one afternoon in the fall when a young man stood on that thin concrete strip in the middle of 29N. I stopped. He looked at me. I rolled down my window. He stepped toward me. And I handed him this ridiculous, giant, HEAVY glass jar filled with coins. (I actually apologized that it was so heavy.) The look on his face made me smile, and then cry. It took a long time for God to bring us together, but He had a purpose and He made it happen. And it wasn’t even Christmas!!