What Do You Do with a Shoe Box?

[This skit was presented by five of our Saint Matthew young people during worship this morning. I hope it encourages everyone, wherever you are, to get involved with Operation Christmas Child!]

What Do You Do with a Shoe Box?

Stephen: Hey, you know what I’ve been thinking about lately?

Kirsten: What have you been thinking about lately?

Stephen: I’ve been thinking about what exactly I could do with this shoe box.

Laikyn: Why have you been thinking about that?

Grace: Oh, the answer to that’s easy. Geometrically speaking, a box is a solid with three sets of surfaces, each set paired in their dimensions. One of those surfaces though, is a lid. And when you pull the lid off the top of the box, there’s a big empty space where new shoes used to be.

Stephen: Exactly. Everything you said was on the tip of my tongue.

Jacob: So, the question isn’t so much what to do with a shoe box…

ALL: But what to do with the empty space inside the shoe box.

Kirsten: Right!

Laikyn: Well, why not just toss the shoe box into the trash? Then you wouldn’t have to answer any question. Problem solved.

Grace: That’s true. But it would be a shame to ruin a perfectly useful shoe box.

Jacob: (grabs shoe box and puts it on head) I think it would make a great hat.

Stephen: Hmm. I don’t know.

Kirsten: (grabs shoe box, sets it on the altar, and pulls out toy BP oil tanker) I think it would make a great garage for my BP oil truck.

Laikyn: Nah, it might spring a leak and ruin the shoe box.

Grace: (grabs shoe box) That’s true. But you know what? I’ve got a great collection of belly button lint. It’s getting too big for the re-sealable Glad bags I’ve been using. [Looks at the box as though inspired.] Just think, this box could be the start of the International Belly Button Lint Museum.

Stephen: Uh, that’s a great idea and all. But, somehow belly button lint and a shoe box don’t seem to go together.

Kirsten: That’s true. But what about a toe jam museum?

Laikyn: Maybe we should forget about the whole museum-in-a-shoe box thing.

Jacob: Hey, I know. Operation Christmas Child!

Grace: Operation what?

All: OPERATION CHRISTMAS CHILD!

Stephen: That’s a great idea!

Grace: What’s Operation Christmas Child?

Kirsten: Operation Christmas Child? You have been spending too much time with that belly button lint!

Laikyn: Operation Christmas Child will let all the people of Saint Matthew fill shoe boxes (or plastic boxes like them that they can buy at places like WalMart, Target, Meijer, and other stores) and fill them with Christmas gifts for children in Third World settings.

Jacob: But most important of all, once they reach distribution centers around the country, their boxes will also be filled with a comic book in the languages of the children who receive them. In words and pictures, it will tell them about Jesus. That will be the best Christmas gift of all: The good news that God so loved them that He gave His only Son so that all who believe in Him will live with God forever.

Stephen: That’s a great thing to put into this shoe box.

Grace: [turning to congregation] So, watch next Sunday’s bulletin and your emails this week for instructions on how to fill your shoe box with the good news and love of Jesus!

Stephen: [also talking to congregation] And then, on Sunday, November 14, bring your shoe boxes filled with gifts for some of the world’s neediest children. We’ll have a wrapping party after our luncheon.

All: What can you do with a shoe box?