{"id":943,"date":"2011-12-28T19:00:18","date_gmt":"2011-12-29T00:00:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=943"},"modified":"2011-12-28T16:07:23","modified_gmt":"2011-12-28T21:07:23","slug":"homeless-at-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2011\/12\/homeless-at-christmas.html","title":{"rendered":"Homeless at Christmas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Being homeless is never an enjoyable experience, but it can be especially tramatic over the holidays.\u00a0 Families with children seem to suffer the most.\u00a0 The little ones are afraid that Santa won&#8217;t find them\u00a0at the homeless shelter.\u00a0 The older children and adults get depressed because they know they have no money to buy gifts.<\/p>\n<p>Our society has made Christmas the big hoopla it is.\u00a0 The more lights, the bigger gifts, the fancier\u00a0cookies, all seem to measure the quality of our Christmas.\u00a0 All these things are fun and a part of the celebration, but what if you didn&#8217;t have all this.\u00a0 What if you were thrown out of your home just days before Christmas?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/files\/2011\/12\/IMG_0580.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-954\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/259\/2011\/12\/IMG_0580-300x271.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"271\" \/><\/a>Every year I try to keep the week right before Christmas open, so I can help at out area homeless shelter.\u00a0 I have wrapped the residents gifts for several years now.\u00a0 I love doing it and they seem to like my work.\u00a0 Many businesses and social agencies buy gifts for the residents.\u00a0 When we get cash donations, we can actually ask them what they would like for Christmas.<\/p>\n<p>One of the ways that Jesus will judge the nations is by things we did or did not do\u00a0to help those in need. Matthew 25:35-40.\u00a0 Jesus himself was homeless all of His adult life.\u00a0 Would we serve the homeless in our area if we know Jesus was staying at the shelter?\u00a0 He says that if we do it to &#8220;one of the least of these&#8221;, you have done it unto Me.<\/p>\n<p>There are so many ways we can help those in need, and not only at Christmas time.\u00a0 It didn&#8217;t cost me one penny to wrap all those presents last week.\u00a0 It needed to be done and I loved doing it.\u00a0 It made me so happy to share in their joy, even if I wasn&#8217;t there to see them unwrapped.\u00a0 I feel so blessed to have this opportunity each year.<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/files\/2011\/12\/IMG_0575.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-thumbnail wp-image-955\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/259\/2011\/12\/IMG_0575-150x150.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Think about what you can do to help those in need throughout the upcoming new year.\u00a0 PLEASE, don&#8217;t wait until Christmas to show love and compassion to those less fortunate than yourselves.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Being homeless is never an enjoyable experience, but it can be especially tramatic over the holidays.\u00a0 Families with children seem to suffer the most.\u00a0 The little ones are afraid that Santa won&#8217;t find them\u00a0at the homeless shelter.\u00a0 The older children and adults get depressed because they know they have no money to buy gifts. Our&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14,27],"tags":[5,46],"class_list":["post-943","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragement","category-inspiration","category-news-or-feature","tag-compassion","tag-holiday"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Homeless at Christmas - Small Town America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2011\/12\/homeless-at-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Homeless at Christmas - Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Being homeless is never an enjoyable experience, but it can be especially tramatic over the holidays.\u00a0 Families with children seem to suffer the most.\u00a0 The little ones are afraid that Santa won&#8217;t find them\u00a0at the homeless shelter.\u00a0 The older children and adults get depressed because they know they have no money to buy gifts. Our&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2011\/12\/homeless-at-christmas.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-12-29T00:00:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-12-28T21:07:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/files\/2011\/12\/IMG_0580-300x271.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dhanny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Homeless at Christmas - Small Town America","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2011\/12\/homeless-at-christmas.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Homeless at Christmas - Small Town America","og_description":"Being homeless is never an enjoyable experience, but it can be especially tramatic over the holidays.\u00a0 Families with children seem to suffer the most.\u00a0 The little ones are afraid that Santa won&#8217;t find them\u00a0at the homeless shelter.\u00a0 The older children and adults get depressed because they know they have no money to buy gifts. 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