Marvellous

Jesus calls us to be faithful to Him - every single day.  He will take what we offer to Him and use it for His glory, and we can experience spiritual fruitfulness. Luke 16 states:
10 He who is faithful in what is least is faithful also in much; and he who is unjust in what is least is unjust also in much.
11 Therefore if you have not been faithful in the unrighteous mammon, who will commit to your trust the true riches?
12 And if you have not been faithful in what is another man's, who will give you what is your own?
13 No servant can serve two masters; for either he will hate the one and love the other, or else he will be loyal to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon."

So, we can determine what we have to offer to our Savior, that He might use for His honor and glory.  We can act in unselfish ways on a consistent basis, so that Jesus is seen through us.  We can realize that what we have materially, as well as our personal gifts, can be used to bring honor to our Savior. So, we can make sure that we are abiding in Him and following the direction of His Spirit, willing to allow the love of Christ to flow through us.

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Jesus possesses the capacity to multiply His grace and love, taking what is seemingly small and using what we offer to Him for His glory.  In John 6, we read that a large crowd had gathered around Jesus - it was time to eat. We can read:
8 One of His disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter's brother, said to Him,
9 "There is a lad here who has five barley loaves and two small fish, but what are they among so many?"
10 Then Jesus said, "Make the people sit down." Now there was much grass in the place. So the men sat down, in number about five thousand.
11 And Jesus took the loaves, and when He had given thanks He distributed them to the disciples, and the disciples to those sitting down; and likewise of the fish, as much as they wanted.

Marvellous is a college student in Charlotte, North Carolina - he is from Central Africa, and his mother gave him his name because she wanted to give God praise because he had been faithful to their family through challenges in their lives.

Marvellous was separated from his parents when he was six - their family had heard gunfire while on a bus attempting to flee their homeland. They began to run - he ran a different way from his family, and he was placed in an orphanage along with other children for a period of time.  But, he was reunited with his parents. 

Two years later, something very special happened in this little boy's life.  According to the Samaritan's Purse website:

At age 8, Marvellous received an Operation Christmas Child shoebox gift at church. He was elated to receive school supplies in his shoebox, calling it an answer to prayer to help him start school. He loved to write and draw, so he was especially thankful for the notebooks, pens, and pencils.

“God hears the cries of His children,” said Marvellous, who is now a 22-year-old college student in Charlotte, North Carolina. “My shoebox gave me hope. Still today, I think that it was a message, a gift from God. These precious shoeboxes share the love of Christ with children around the world.”

The website had shared the information about the struggles of the family, who originally lived in an area of Central Africa where Christians were persecuted.  His family relocated to another part of the country, where his parents had difficulty finding work and could not afford to send their children to school. Nevertheless, they believed that God would provide for them.  Certainly, He had been with them through challenging times in the past.  And, a note inside that Operation Christmas Child shoebox was a reminder to Marvellous; it read: “No matter where you are, just know that God loves you no matter what you are going through in life.”

Samaritan's Purse is headed by Franklin Graham, the son of the late evangelist Billy Graham, and Edward Graham, who is Franklin's son, recently told The Christian Post: 

God is using this ministry to further the name of Jesus Christ more so than probably even my grandpa. More kids have heard Christ through these shoebox distributions than ever heard about Christ in stadiums with my grandfather, that's incredible. Those numbers are absolutely incredible to see decisions being made.

I love my grandfather's ministry and it's still going strong and millions of people are coming to Christ through that ministry. This is just another tool for evangelism that God's using.

National Collection Week for Operation Christmas Child begins today and continues through next Monday.  Collection centers across the Faith Radio broadcast area will be offering curbside pickup of your shoeboxes.  And, Operation Christmas Child offers the opportunity to "build" your own box online.  You can go to www.samaritanspurse.org/occ to learn more.  

Who would have thought?  It was certainly a novel idea that God has taken and multiplied. It reminds me of a little boy who brought five loaves and two fish to Jesus. He took that small offering and used it to feed thousands.  We can remember the He is able to take what we offer Him and multiply it.

We all need reminders of His faithfulness.  That's especially important during this unusual time in human history. These shoebox gifts come to children, many of them in seemingly hopeless situations, and remind them of a loving God who gave of Himself by giving His Son to die for them.  I've seen the excitement of an Operation Christmas Child distribution, and it's really a challenge to each of us to be enthusiastic of what God has done for us.