It’s 10:27 am, and I’m sitting at my computer desk with my planner in front of me, telling me I need to write a blog post today. The only thing I can think of that was really noteworthy this week was something I discovered a couple of days ago—a little card stuck into a book I was given, and subsequently forgotten.
That became a special gift this week. When we took our family trip in December/January, we got to meet a sweet older couple whom we had heard about, but never had the chance to make the acquaintance of. The day after we visited them, we met up again with them in church, and she handed me a devotional, wrapped in paper, with a card on top.
It was a special gesture—one that I will treasure. The devotional was New Morning Mercies by Paul David Tripp, and earlier that month I’d had the blessing of reading some of his advent devotionals—so I was especially excited to get to read this one.
Since I was in the middle of another book at the time, though, I didn’t pick this one up right away. Just this week, I finished that other one (finally!), so I got to start reading this.
And opening that front cover, I saw the card she’d given me—lying forgotten between the red endpapers.
In the joy of the gift, of the unexpected friendship, I hadn’t taken a lot of time to study the card. But now, it was a gift.
Their lives had been turned somewhat upside down by a family member getting very sick, but one thing I noticed when we visited them at their home was all the verses of hope and life that they had around—framed on the walls, on bits of paper underneath the clear plastic tablecloth—it was unmistakably a house of HOPE! And now, she’d slipped a little bit of that hope—that joy of theirs, even in the middle of a fight for life—into this book for me.
For this time? Perhaps. Or perhaps it was such sustenance to them that she thought it would be an encouragement to me, too. I don’t know.
But I do know this—she’s an inspiration. Her giving spirit was a blessing—we’ve only met that one time, but she gave me (and my family) gifts she thought would be helpful to us as we continued our travels. I doubt I’ll ever forget that.
Through this experience, I can only pray that the Lord will help me to be more open-handed, to be ready and willing to be a blessing however I can to those I meet. And I also pray that I can learn to focus on the blessings and promises of the Lord, no matter what earthly circumstances I face—as she and her family did during that rough time. The result is truly beautiful.
And, once again, I’m struck by the blessing of the wider Christian family . . . what a beautiful thing the Lord has created for us to enjoy!
How has someone else blessed you recently?
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