God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. 1 Peter 4:10 NIV

Peter tells us that God has promised each one of us a special spiritual gift, and I love recalling the way my grandson discovered his.

When I was the coordinator for the prison ministry in our church, I enjoyed setting up and decorating the Christmas tree with the names of children whose parent was incarcerated. Throughout November, church members chose a name from the tree, bought a gift, then returned it the next Sunday. The first week of December, we always hosted a big pizza party and invited these children to receive their gifts.

After the party, we delivered any unclaimed gifts to their homes. One year my nine-year-old grandson helped me deliver a few packages. When we returned home, he was so excited about his day of delivering gifts. He told his father, “Dad, Grandma and I had fun taking Christmas presents to some really poor people today. One lady was so poor she didn’t have any teeth.”

He later came to me and asked if he could go with me again next year. My grandson had discovered one of His promised spiritual gifts: the gift of service.

Dear Father, thank You for even a small child’s gift to help others. Amen.
written by Sandra Lee Cleary