Sam's Gift

It was in early December when I received an email from a cousin of mine. She is a teacher in a poor school district. One of her student’s family of 12 had suffered a house fire which destroyed all they owned and killed their grandfather and dog. They had a little baby the same size clothes as my youngest son and two high school girls about my size in clothing.
I responded by getting some curtains I no longer use, some clothes that were “professional” nice but not trendy, and some of my son’s clothes that he did not really wear to much any more.
As I was taking the boxes of stuff I had collected to the front door one morning, Sam, my three year old asked what was going on. I told him there was a fire in someone’s home and the family lost all they owned. Even their grandpa and dog got hurt. I explained to him that there was a baby who lived with the family who was Nathan’s (his baby brother) size. Sam’s face got very serious. “Hmmm..” he said as he put his hand on his check (his new thinking gesture). Then he went to the kitchen and brought out a container of juice to the front door. He went back and forth until he had brought all of his juice to the front door. My children do not get very much juice. It is only for special occasions, which lead me to ask Sam, “What are you doing?”
“Juice, Mom. Juice make Baby better.”
Sam wanted to give ALL his juice to the child he had never met before.

Sam showed me what true giving is. My son gave what was most valuable to him. I only gave what I no longer wanted or used. My three year old taught me how to give from your heart, even to people you don’t know and will never meet. Sam reminded me of what the Christmas Season is about.
The following week, I moved the kids up in clothes so that I could donate all of the clothes we have in the other child’s size.