Yes, yes, yes

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Everywhere there is talk of economic hardship. I keep getting letters, both in my personal mailbox and the piles at work, mentioning the harder times individuals and organizations are facing. My alma mater mentions students who won't be able to return next semester... a mother with five young children asks if I can send a box of used clothes and old toys for Christmas.

And the red-aproned red kettle keeps ding, ding, dinging the bell.

"No" is painful to say, yet avoiding the eyes of the woman collecting donations for the homeless shelter downtown hurts even more... and pictures prove the shelves at the food pantry are bare.

Another family writes in that they will be losing their house unless we can help with their payments, but we can't. And that is just the plain, hard truth.

And the gift catalog for goats and bicycles sits next to the magazine advertising the T-shirt that supports the end of world hunger.

No. No, I'm sorry. It is just not possible. That's not what we do here. I don't know who can help you. I can't.

And I wonder if in my words someone is hearing "What?!? Are there no poor houses? Are there no prisons?"

Oh, that I could say "yes!" That I could buy the biggest turkey in the shop window and send it home to the Tiny Tims the world over. That I could, by simply unlocking my storehouses of hoarded wealth, keep illness and death at bay.

Oh, that I could say "yes, yes, yes".

But my yeses need be much smaller. I have but five loaves and two fishes, and they can barely make a decent lunch for me, much less the five thousand crowding all around.

I can't end world hunger. I can't keep families from losing their homes and ending up in the homeless shelter in the wrong part of town. I can't keep disease from spreading among children. The multitudes are too many. And I... I am just me.

But what if I could alert my neighbors and their neighbors to the people who need to hear "yes" this season. I don't have the talents of the Ghost of Christmas Present and I don't want to use the intimidation of Christmas Future, I just want to encourage others to share their little lunch of five loaves and two fishes and then maybe we will see we have twelve baskets full of yeses left over.

Comments

sarah marie said…
I love this post.
9:08 AM
Emily (Laundry and Lullabies) said…
Me too - you wrote it really well.

We're trying to stretch our loaves and fishes so we can give, too. But oh, it is heartbreaking to read of all the needs. Sometimes I can't even read them because it gets too overwhelming. My little ability to give is so, so little!
3:37 PM
slowlane said…
Thanks, you two. And Emily, I know what you mean about not being able to even read the needs. It is so disheartening sometimes.
11:58 AM
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