No Strings Attached

The youth group met yesterday afternoon and completed the shopping for Christmas for Camden Kids. Then we went to downtown St. Marys to give away dollar bills. It proved not as easy as you might think to give a stranger a dollar. If the person took the dollar they were given a business card which read,

It's a free dollar.
There really are no strings attached.

This is just an exercise
to help our youth group
learn about the
free gift of God's love.
Thanks for helping.
Then we gathered and talked about buying the toys and sending them off with no strings attached, the children who get them will have no idea who bought them. And then the dollars given again with no strings attached, not even the name of the church given (which could be viewed as advertising). These are both tangible signs of how God gives us so many gifts out of love, rather than because we earn or deserve God's love.

We can give for what we get in return, making sure the person knows that we gave him or her something. Or we can give without the recipient even knowing who gave the gift. The second option best models the agape, the self-giving loving we find most fully revealed in the life and ministry of Jesus.

Thanks Kelly and Ginger for helping out!