Driving home Friday, after running errands and attending homeschool group, I was thinking about how tired I was. I was actually thinking about how super wiped-out I feel most Fridays after homeschool group and errand running.
As we pulled up in front of our home here at We Will Go, I saw a man come around the corner on his bicycle and stop just behind the van. I saw through the rear view mirror that he was staring at the van.
This is a fair representation of my thoughts at that moment:
"Oh great. That man is looking at the van like he wants or needs something. Really? I am so tired. I just wanna go in the house and chill. I do not want to help anyone or talk to anyone or do anything for anyone. Maybe if I stall getting out of the van he will just give up and go away. Okay, talk to the kids. Find things to prolong getting out of the van.
The kids are getting out of the van. Maybe he'll see that we're unloading groceries and we're really busy and he'll go away. Or maybe he'll ask for food when he sees the groceries.
Why is he still there? Can't he see I'm not getting out of the van?
Okay, so I'm getting out of the van and dealing with this."
I kid you not. These were my thoughts. And then this is what happened as best as I can remember:
I get out of the van and greet the man and ask him if I can help him with anything (even though I don't want to help him with anything). He reminds me that he had come by the week earlier looking for work boots. He is a security guard and has to have black boots and the ones he had were tearing up and uncomfortable. Jim had looked in the ministry shop the last time he came by to no avail so had told him to come back.
So he did.
And now I was helping him whether I wanted to or not.
But I'd just been working in the shop the day before and knew we didn't have any.
I told him to hold on and let me look in my foyer because we'd gotten some donations and maybe there were some black boots in his size among the bags.
Yeah right.
Like that's gonna happen.
So I open the door and there are bags of donations that hadn't been there when I left four hours ago now sitting on top of the older donations. Among the new donations is a bag of shoes. With boots. Black ones. Just one size larger than he requested. He wanted an 11, these were a 12.
Wow.
I took them out and showed them to him. They were nice. They were in new or like-new condition and they had big, fat rubber soles and good support. The size even looked right despite what the number said. We both agreed that a size bigger was better than a size smaller.
I told him that God was obviously looking after him because those boots had not been there when I left but had gotten dropped off just in time to be ready for him to come by on that Friday afternoon.
Now hear me on this, we do get a lot of donations, but boot donations aren't super common and especially not like-new black boots in a size that will work for him. We're not a big box store getting boots by the dozens. We're just a bunch of folks who feel called to live together and love our neighbors and we give away whatever happens to be dropped off by some really sweet people. I can sort through 3 or 4 dozen bags and not come across a single pair of black work boots.
But God wanted this man to have the boots he needed for his job because the God who cares about each little sparrow that falls cares even more about a man made in His image. This is a man that Father God loves so much He sent His only begotten Son Jesus to die for on the cross 2,000 years ago. This is a man that God loves so much He somehow arranged this beautiful demonstration of His love in such a way that this man would know God sees Him and wants to be His good Father.
Because God is good, always, and I am not.
Any good that does dwell in me is strictly because of Him.
And I love how He is so faithful to remind me of this truth.
You know what else I love? That He is kind enough to let me be a part of the blessing even when I'm a reluctant conduit and don't deserve sharing in the glory of it all. Kind enough to include me, use me, and even forgive me.
Every good and perfect gift is from above,
coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights,
who does not change like shifting shadows.
---
James 1:17
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