Category Archives: Christmas

God’s Object Lesson

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In the last blog I described a botched opportunity to do a random act of kindness for a needy lady, but God didn’t let me forget it. He repeatedly bothered my conscience till I knew I’d have to do something to make up for my poor choice.

The next morning a handful of us were seated at a restaurant having breakfast, so I planned to tell the group of my fail, and ask for input.

GiftAs I waited for the right moment, a stranger broke into our conversation, arriving at our table with a beautifully wrapped package. He walked up to Emerald and handed the gift to her as if he’d planned it for weeks. “Here you go, little girl. Merry Christmas!” Immediately afterwards, he hurried away.

Assuming it was the restaurant manager giving gifts to all young patrons, we questioned our waitress when she returned. “Did you see that?”

“Yes,” she said. “Interesting.”

“Is he part of the restaurant staff?”

“I’ve never seen him.”

Charlie Brown Christmas book.Emerald opened her present (wrapped in paper decorated on both sides) to find a 9” X 12” book – Merry Christmas Charlie Brown. And then it hit me. God was demonstrating what he’d wanted me to do the day before, by allowing me to experience the warm feeling of being surprised with an unexpected gift. As we were saying, “Wow! Can you believe this?” God was saying, “That’s what I had in mind for the Walmart lady. Understand?”

And I did. But there was more.

As our eggs and pancakes arrived, I told my family the story of the Walmart lady, expressing sadness that I hadn’t responded to God’s prompt.

“Maybe you should respond now then,” Nelson said.

“How?”

“See that guy over there?” he said, pointing to a man eating alone across the room. “Why don’t you pay for his breakfast?”

When our waitress returned, I asked if she could put his meal on our bill without letting him know who paid. “No problem,” she said. “Glad to help.”

CouponBut God wasn’t finished. When our server brought the bill she said, “Your breakfast will be 25% off this morning. That couple over there gave me a coupon to apply to your meal.” It was Ann, a local bank teller, having breakfast with her husband.

The Lord was creatively driving home his point about giving to others without counting the cost. But he wasn’t done even yet.

When I looked at the bill and its 25% discount, the extra meal we bought totaled less than the discount we received. So even after our gift of a free breakfast, we were going to leave the restaurant with a gain. The only thing to do was give it away– and we joyfully left a 50% tip for our waitress.

But God had one final comment to make. Our food plus tax added up to $46.10 – a familiar number. “Hey,” I said. “Isn’t that an important Bible reference?”

“You’re probably thinking of Psalm 46:10,” Nelson said. “ ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ ”

Random Act of Un-kindness

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Yesterday’s to-do list included the pleasure of picking up my firstborn at O’Hare Airport after not having seen him for ten months. Allowing the usual two hours to make that trip from Michigan, I added 45 minutes for a stop at Walmart to get groceries for Christmas Day.

The store was crowded, and I was in a big hurry.

After my list sent me to three of the four farthest corners of that expansive store, I was finally ready to check out – ten minutes “overtime” on my schedule. But when I found a line with only one customer, I was sure God was helping me.

checking outI plunked my items on the belt double-time, piling them two and three deep to get them all on at once. The check-out girl said to the woman in front of me, “That’ll be $19. 70.”

The customer stood with her back to me, her purse in the cart’s baby seat, arms leaning on the push-bar. It was the posture of exhaustion. Her elbows never left the cart as she rummaged through her purse looking for payment. Tapping my toe and checking my phone, I mentally berated her for not having it all together.

As she continued rifling through her purse, she didn’t say a word. She didn’t even turn in my direction to say, “Sorry.” An eternity of four minutes passed, and I could feel the sweat breaking out beneath my down coat. Apparently she felt it too, because she stopped rummaging long enough to take her coat off, folding it into the cart next to her Walmart bags.

As I considered unloading the belt and rolling my cart to a different register, I heard from God (in my spirit). “Margaret, pay her bill and get ready to share your faith.”

“Good idea,” I thought. “Then I can finally get checked out!”

Obediently I put my hand on my purse but found it hard to turn off the frustration. But suddenly the woman produced a Walmart gift card and handed it to the checker, which turned out to be not enough to cover the bill. Lacking four dollars and change, she resumed digging while I pulled out my wallet. “But Lord,” I thought, “it might embarrass her to just hand her money. After all, she’s paid part of the bill now.”

moneyI glanced at my phone. Five more painful minutes had passed when finally she produced a couple of crumpled bills and a handful of change. Her receipt rolled out of the cash register, the woman rolled her cart away, and my opportunity rolled up and died.

 

But God had something more to say.        [Next blog post]

We must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, “It is more blessed to give than to receive.” (Acts 20:35)

God’s Different Agenda

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Charlie Brown ChristmasThe Christmas season is full of reasons to celebrate, and celebrate we do – in classrooms, offices, churches, stores, homes, and in our yards.

One of my favorite parts of the season is the music. Though our children grew up with a measure of choice over what they wanted to hear, once we flipped the calendar to December, it was mom’s Christmas carols, all the way.

I love the old standards and don’t have any need to get familiar with new ones, but this year, God himself added a tune of his own: Rock-a-bye Baby.

Daughter Linnea, 9 months pregnant, felt a few twinges yesterday afternoon but didn’t think much of it. Her fifth baby wasn’t due for a few more days, and the older four had all come well after their due dates.

Baby Nelson AaronBut God had a different agenda, and by dinnertime they were cuddling their new baby boy. Labor and delivery were speedy and textbook-perfect with three midwives, one daddy, and one auntie (also a midwife) present for the home birth. Linnea and Adam decided to name their little guy in a special way, after both of their oldest siblings: Nelson Aaron.

As his grandma, my plan was to be in Florida for the baby’s birth – like I was for the last two – but here again, God had a different agenda. Many months ago when Linnea and I chose the day after Christmas for my plane ticket, we gambled that this baby would be late like the others. But the Lord smiled and said, “Well, we’ll see about that.”

He had a different agenda for Linnea, for Adam, for baby Nelson, and for me.

But isn’t that often his way? What we think will happen doesn’t, and what does happen often surprises us. That’s because we so easily fool ourselves into believing we’re in charge of our own lives, when it’s really God who has it all in hand. The up side of this is, if we’re willing to accept that our good, loving God is completely in charge, any future unknowns can’t possibly worry us.

Baby Nelson meets his folksAnd so, as my 11th grandchild dozes in his mother’s arms, I’m delighted to add yet one more Christmas-time carol to my playlist:

Lullaby and Goodnight.

The Most High… does according to his will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay his hand or say to him, “What have you done?” (Daniel 4:35)