How Does a Red Box Become a Blessing

Just in time for the first lockdown, we got our Blessing Box installed. Three feet by three feet, two shelves filled with food stuffs behind a glass door in a red box. The red door of our little church cannot be open, but the Blessing Box is available 24/7, when all other sources of food aid are closed. We put it on a post, so that people using it would not have to bend over. It's right next to our Little Library.

Immediately, it began to bless the neighborhood, bless our congregation, and bless our town. A sign invites people to give and to receive. And many do both.

The thing quickly filled up with dry beans. The cans were more beans, a salt-free variety. The secretary kept taking the beans to St. Vincent de Paul. Our lay leader who keeps an eye on the box kept telling us, No more beans! But they kept coming.

I think what is happening is that people get food packages that include dry beans from Vincent de Paul. Either because they are homeless, or don't have adequate facilities, or don't have time to cook beans between work and home-schooling children, or are sick to death of beans, these beans are just not useful to them. So they bring them to us. They have something to give, beans.

My wife and I started including tuna in easy-open pouches, stew in flip-top cans, and protein bars in our grocery order. Then we'd trade. We really need to eat more vegetable-based protein and have no idea where to find those salt-free beans. So we are blessed to receive - beans.

Somebody out walking found our blessing box and told everybody about it on a local Facebook page. Food was soon flying in and out of the thing. But nobody ever sweeps it clean. I once put two $5 cash cards for a local grocery store in the box. The next day, one of them was gone. The other remained.

A woman, not a member of our church, regularly drives by on her way to the store to check out the contents and add what might be needed to her grocery list. No beans!

Our church is in an area visited by homeless people. So we focus on what they can use. Nowadays that includes hand warmers and space blankets. It's Christmas. Our next grocery order should include some candy, don't you think?

Ours is a Mutual Ministry congregation. So it seems no surprise that when we do a blessing box, it's only partly about what we do for others. Mostly it's about offering an opportunity for all to engage in ministry. The nation is in a sorry state. The healing begins by reweaving the web of care within our communities, our neighborhoods. That little box with its glass door and red walls signals sanctuary, a safe place for us all to find each other again. It is a blessing.

Oh, and one person decided we needed to install a bench between the books and the food. It has since been used for a nap.