CARE Package is a registered trademark dating back seventy-five years to American humanitarian aid (food relief) sent to war-torn Europe. At that time CARE stood for Cooperative for American Remittances to Europe. Since 1953 the acronym CARE has stood for Cooperative for Assistance and Relief Everywhere. In May 2020 CARE launched a new CARE Package program to respond to the COVID pandemic. The US has been added to countries receiving urgent humanitarian support.
As remarkable as CARE is in helping to meet needs throughout the world, God’s Word talks about a much greater CARE package. In 2 Corinthians 9:15 we read these words: “Thanks be to God for his indescribable gift.” Depending on the translation you are reading, this is referred to as an “inexpressible” or “unspeakable” gift or “a gift too wonderful for words.” Our gifts wane in comparison to a Savior who died on the cross to save us from our sins and give us eternal life.
We know we can’t outgive God, but we can learn from Him—He is our Teacher. Our gifts offer us opportunities for others to see Jesus in us. As the song we have sung since childhood says, “Let others see Jesus in you.”
We have been given the most special gift. Read Luke 2:11: “There has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.” Jesus is our gift.
How do we say thanks to God? Can we put our love into action through our caring for others?
Norma Rossouw in “The Pocket Bible Devotional for Women” describes caring in this way:
Caring means choosing to make other people’s problems and joys your problems and joys. It’s choosing to walk with someone at their pace, to laugh and to cry together. Caring doesn’t mean having all the answers; it is showing love, compassion, respect and bondage.
2 Corinthians 1:4 reads: “God comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves receive from God.”
What will you include in your CARE package? Your gift may be audible. Can you whistle a “happy tune” to brighten someone’s day or share your testimony in words or actions which may change their life? Our choices of gifts are limitless. Find your own way to live out God’s instruction to us: “Beloved, if God so loved us, we should love one another (1 John 4:11).
Submitted by Jean Glosson
