Did you ever see something so unexpectedly wonderful it nearly takes your breath away?

Imagine walking into an otherwise empty sanctuary prior to Sunday services, to discover every one of a church's 500 or so seats occupied — by a teddy bear! That's what happened to me early Sunday morning at Unity of Naples Church. I walked to the front of the sanctuary and turned around to see nothing but bears looking back at me in the peaceful silence.

There were big bears. Medium-size bears. Little tiny bears. Golden bears. Black bears. A pink bear or two. Polar bears. Koala bears. All sitting there quietly, waiting to be dispersed, having been filled with love for the past several weeks by members of the congregation. How?

Beginning shortly before Thanksgiving, Unity of Naples members bring bears to church with them on Sundays and leave them behind in the pews after the worship service. In time for Christmas, the bears given to the neediest children in our community.

My friend Roger Arbury, a member at Unity of Naples, told me about the project. "Each Sunday," he said, "everyone picks up the bears, sits with them throughout the service, hugs them, holds them up, fills them with love for the spe- cial mission they are about to perform."

And a very special mission it is.

This year the hundreds of bears are about to bring joy to pre-K and kindergarten students at the Avalon School in East Naples. For many of these children, a bear will be their only gift.

Other bears will be designated to ride with Collier County deputies, to be given as needed to children whose families are in crisis. Still other bears from Unity will go to Youth Haven, Collier County's emergency shelter for abused, abandoned and neglected children.

And so, after a sleepless night thinking about the joy these very special bears are about to bring to scores of needy children and their families, I returned to the church early Monday morning, this time with Charlie, my family's very special antique bear, in tow. I knew Charlie would want to see all the happiness I had spent Sunday evening trying to describe to him. (Everyone already knows I speak to cats and dogs, so it should come as no surprise that I also talk to teddy bears.)

Neither of us was disappointed. There they sat, knowing they were about to be disbursed to hundreds of homes where they would bring, if only for a little bit, such happiness to so many innocent victims of the economic woes with which our country is struggling.

So while corporate America is trying to explain away its unbridled greed, while the auto industry is on its knees begging for help, wouldn't it be wonderful if the rest of us quietly went out, bought a bear, filled it with love and made certain every needy person in our country was the recipient of such a gift of love?