Bless the poor

 One of the many noteworthy things about the story of the birth of Jesus is that His parents were poor peasants and His first visitors were shepherds.  Humble, lowly and poor beginnings.   God started as He meant to go on, emphasising the importance of the little people, the overlooked and marginalised.  Jesus went out of His way to seek out the lepers, the prostitutes and the demonised.  When was the last time you did that?

My One Good Thing yesterday was a bit of a triumph.  I was about to sign out of my Travelodge and begin the long trek home when I saw at the bottom of my bag a pack of ' encouragement cards' I had thrown in at the last minute and forgotten about.   These cards are the size of postcards, with some encouraging words and a bible verse on one side and blank on the other.  I bought them from Faith Mission ages ago and have occasionally used them instead of notecards, or just to give to people when I felt it to be appropriate.   As my eyes lit on the packet I suddenly had the idea that I could leave a thank you note to the people who were about to come in and clean my room.  The place was spotless when I arrived and clearly someone had done an excellent job of making the bed , hoovering, cleaning the bathroom etc.  Im guessing the cleaners rarely get a thank you, so I thought Id leave them one.   Then I remembered that I also had a box of chocolates in my bag!  So I left those too.  

As I exited my room and headed for the car I passed the cleaning lady who smiled at me and said hello.  She sounded as though she might have been from Poland or somewhere like that.  I smiled at her and hoped she would be blessed by finding the chocolates and the note.   She deserved to feel blessed.  She works really hard and does a good job probably for a minimum wage and little thanks.   But she is exactly the sort of person Jesus wants to come to at Christmas.   Of course, He wants all of us.  But His heart is particularly turned towards the hardworking poor, the neglected and forgotten ones, those who would not imagine being visited by a King.

This week, in the run up to Christmas we will all be coming into contact with the poor.  The person who cleans the toilets in the shopping centre or cafe.  The guy who collects the trollies at the supermarket.  The parent standing next to us in the post office who has just been to the foodbank because they cant afford to have the kids at home over the Christmas holidays without that extra support.  Those of us who have been blessed with much should make every effort to be a blessing to others all the time, but especially at Christmas.  even the smallest gestures, a smile, a thank-you, a ' well done'  can make a difference.  We serve a super-kind, massively generous God.  Let's look for ways to be like Him today.

(Here's the book of postcards Ive got.  There are others in the series called ' Prayers to share' and they are a lovely way to bless people.  You can just leave them lying around for people to find or be more intentional with them as you see fit )