As some of you know we have been attending church since around June, while it hasn't always been every single week it has been pretty consistent. We enjoy this, Mr. T enjoys it and its good for our family! We have made some good connections here and our relationship with each other and God has grown!
Fast forward to December... our church does a giving tree for families in need. This tree is for church members to "give" money towards regular everyday items so that during this time of year others can have a nice dinner for Christmas or to not worry about certain items like buying presents for kids or gas money etc. (you get the idea)... things aren't tight for us but like most we are on a budget. I did "want" to give to the giving tree but due to our budget was not able... however we have given pretty regularly to the food bank our church has and I have given my time (through RAMBER Designs) to other church functions (not our church but a dear friend's youth group). That said we have been tithing pretty regularly, but still not like I would like.
Again fast forward to Tuesday... I got the mail like I do every day and in our mail was an envelope from our church. It felt pretty bulky so I opened it right away... inside was a sweet note that said "Praying your Christmas is blessed, knowing Jesus is the giver of all good gifts! Love in Christ, Your Harvest Family!" and with it was $150 worth of gift certificates!!! WHAT! WHY did we get these??? We aren't in "need" we don't deserve these! Ry's reaction was to immediately give it back to the church, THEY made a mistake! He was mad at me for some prayer request he assumed I had made regarding funds. I have made NO SUCH prayer request! And immediately my thoughts were "God makes NO mistakes, thus the church made NO mistake, this was meant for us for some reason." I even texted my best friend Lacy (who is a youth pastor) asking her opinion. We (Lacy and I) both agreed (I knew this but needed reassurance knowing I wasn't taking advantage) that God makes NO mistakes and this was meant for us... to keep it and pray about it. So praying is what I did (and unbeknown to me so did Ry). Immediately I kept getting a certain name that needed one of the certificates. Then while talking to Chade (he is Ry's co-worker and mentor) and Ry yesterday Chade said that this was given to us for a purpose, maybe we aren't the ones in need but through us is the only way the church and God can give to certain people. So yesterday with Chade I told Ry who I kept getting that needed one of the certificates but HE (Ry) needed to give it to her. Chade agreed. See, coming from Ry this is something completely unexpected, especially with how Ry told her we came about knowing we should give it to her. And honestly at first Ry did NOT want to give it to her, he said we help her enough as it is... that was the devils hold on his thoughts. We prayed and Ry did give it to her... she did need it, more than even I knew! Chade also at random mentioned that someone else we knew maybe needed it... it was heavy on both Ry and my heart throughout the rest of the day that yes we should give to them. So last night we went and delivered the gift and sure enough she was very happy and sweet (I think it made her day). We were able to tell her that God wanted us to give this to her... I don't think she actually believed us but we said it and and it was. We were able to minister to both of these families... something we both have not done (me for a very long time). IT WAS AWESOME! (Obviously I left these people's names out for privacy reasons but God knows).
We didn't give these gifts for our glory but for God's, they aren't even from us! Like Ry said last night, we are just messengers of good faith and we feel our church used us in this avenue. It felt amazing to bring the real spirit of Christmas to someone!
So this Christmas season (its still not too late) I encourage you to be a giver... be the true meaning of Christmas! Put CHRIST back into Christmas... it will warm your heart!
Merry Christmas!!!
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