Joe and I went shopping this morning.

Joe isn’t his real name; I wish I could tell you his real name, because it ties in nicely with the holiday theme, but it wouldn’t be appropriate.

The Quest Sunday School class at my church, First UMC Shelbyville, has a long-standing holiday tradition of taking underprivileged kids (referred by the school system) out shopping for Christmas. This year, the class had raised plenty of money but for various reasons was short on manpower, so members of other classes, including the one I teach, volunteered to help out.

We met the kids at the church. After being matched up, we all drove out to Wal-Mart. We had $150 to spend on each child, with the guideline being to spend $100 on clothes and $50 on toys.

Joe is 10 years old. We got him some pants, some shirts, pajama bottoms and white T-shirts, a belt, socks, pencils, paper, and some toys, the two main ones being some sort of plastic contraption designed for playing with Yu-Gi-Oh cards, and a Star Wars light saber.

He was excited, and pleased, but not greedy or demanding. He was, all told, remarkably well behaved for a 10-year-0ld boy.

He told me that the previous Christmas, he had been the beneficiary of another church’s program, and that his name had been mistyped on the list. They thought he was a girl and got him a makeup kit!

He saw the light saber first, and we picked that up, but then he saw the Yu-Gi-Oh thing and wanted it instead. At the time, I didn’t think he could have both, but I had mis-estimated.

Wal-Mart had set aside a special cash register up front, register 23, for all of us to go through. They kept a running total of our purchases. Joe and I were actually the first ones through, and discovered that we were, in fact, short, so we went back and got the light saber. (Because the church was paying for everything, we avoided sales tax.)

Once we had finished shopping, we headed back to the church. The grownups wrapped the presents, although in some cases the kids wanted to help. There were bologna sandwiches, chips and cookies for everyone.

In addition to what had been purchased at Wal-Mart, each child received some extra goodies that won’t have to wait for Christmas to be opened — a big bag of school supplies, a backpack, a Santa hat, and a knit cap and scarf which had been hand-made by our church’s knitting ministry. We also gave each family a Bible.

Joe helped me wrap. By the time we were done, his brother and sisters had gotten back to church and they eagerly compared notes on what they had purchased.

I’d been feeling sorry for myself this week. I’m worried about my car and not sure what will happen if it gives out on me, especially at this time of year. I’m frustrated with my job but don’t know what else I should be doing.

But this morning put me back into the holiday spirit, and reminded me what’s really important about life, and about Christmas.