Sherri

　
Sherri Stephen J. Jeffries
Sherri Jeffries Freeman was my neice and the mother of McKenzie Freeman.
It was a tipically cold winter afternoon, in Indiana. as she greeted little Sherry as she stepped off the School bus. Susan was used to the cold weather from living in Maryland all of her life but the wind seemed more intense out on the Rush County country side amoung the vacant fields and farmland.. Sherry's little nose was about all she could see as it peeked out her winter hat and scarf.
She was all smiles as Susan unwrapped her, almost as if she was unwrapping a package. The doting mother had taken special effort to layer her clothing even though she spent most of the trip to and from school in a warm school bus. She noticed that she only had one glove on as she searched her tiny pockets for the lonely mate but with no avail. Being careful not to scold her , she asked what had happened to her glove. This was the not the first glove that had gone missing since school had began and her first thoughts were that some older studunt was taking her glove from her.
She looked up and began to cry. I quickly assured her that I was not mad as she began to tell me about her friend. You see her friend at school did not have a pair of gloves to wear. Her dad had lost his job and they could not afford to buy any. So I gave her my glove and we just put the other hand in our pocket. That way we were both warm.
As her eyes filled with tears she assured Sherry that she had done a good thing but quickly suggested that they go down to the store and buy her friend a pair of gloves of her own. That way they would both have warm hands.
When I first heard this story I was amazed at how wise this little girl had been. You can not teach this kind of raw compassion. It can only come from the heart. I believe God asks us to make sacrifices for our neighbors, who ever they may be, but I don't believe He wants us to go hungary in the process. He lets us "keep the other glove" so to speak and hopefully share the burdan of hunger and poverty in our world as best we can. We are all very capable of giving up something that keeps us "comfortable and warm", like that glove. It might be money but it also might be time and energy or even kind words. When you think of compassion in the world, think of this tiny girl and the compassion she shared with her one glove.