Overflowing

I talked to an office volunteer at the church Friday morning about the warm things I was making with my sister's yarn to donate to the homeless. She told me the bin in the hall was full to overflowing.
Later that afternoon, I saw her and she proudly told me she had donated everything to a charity.
I was crushed. This was the project I was doing in memory of my sister. I had alread promised everything to A-HOPE, a drop-in day center for homeless people. The scarves and hats and socks went to another program that works for the homeless, but I was heartbroken. Everything I had gathered was gone and I had to go tell the people at A-HOPE that everything I had promised them had been given to another program.
I sat down and started crocheting more scarves; my husband handed over money to buy a couple dozen more pairs of socks. But when I went to put them in the bin this morning, it was gone too. There was no evidence my project had even existed. I went into choir practice holding back tears.
Our choir director gave me another plastic bin to put out, and I stood and stared at the empty bin, thinking about how the people I had promised to help were going to get just four scarves and 2 dozen pairs of socks.
During workship, the pastor talked about the memorial service for homeless people who have died that he and I both attended Friday night, and how one man prayed to find God again. About 200 people were there as we named those who died because they were homeless and lit candles and told stories about them.
My scarves and hats and all went to the homeless, and I decided I would keep the bin next to the door of the sanctuary for another couple of weeks, and that I will do this again next year.
I left the sanctuary after worship, expecting to see a still-empty bin, but it was full, and two shopping bags full of sweaters and shirts sat next to it. People gave me money to shop for socks and others promised to bring more things tomorrow for Christmas Eve services.
A woman who is homeless and attends our church came up to me after the service and told me how happy she is that we're doing this. I told her about how the yarn for the scarves came from my sister, who died last year.
"You'll see your sister's yarn again," she said. "You'll see it all around town, keeping people warm."
As I loaded everything into the car and left church, it was my heart that was overflowing. Scarves and socks seem so trivial to me, but then, I have a warm place to go when it's cold and rainy outside.