It's interesting how God works when we can't see it. Last March I was so excited to get a deal on 2800 of these radios to use as fillers in our Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes. They worked fine. They were only .14 each and I thought they'd make the perfect gift.
The strange thing is that somehow in the chaos of our large packing party we ended up not using very many of them at all. I was saving them to use when the stuffed animals ran out, but then they never did.
We only used about 500 of the radios and didn't want to let them sit in our cold storage container over the winter.
So today I was able to pass them on to my friend Jim Urban who needs them for packing thousands of boxes this week in the North Pittsburgh area.
As we were filling his minivan to the roof with 2300 of these, I laughingly wondered why I ever bought these when we didn't end up using them. I quickly corrected myself, though, and said that God must have known Jim would need them.
Jim asked how he could pay me for them, and I told him I'm only trying to "pay it forward" in gratitude for the 22,400 mini frisbees that my friend Jeff donated to me for our packing party.
That's the mystery of how God works. What He gives to me might really be meant for you. And what He gives to you might really be meant for me. When you think about it, it's a whole lot more fun that way. We each get the blessing of both receiving from God and giving. It makes sense that our omniscient God would have that figured out, eh?
And speaking of filling minivans, as soon as I passed the radios to Jim I was able to fill up my own minivan with boxes from the storage container to take to the Operation Christmas Child collection center tomorrow.
This baby has more than 350 shoe boxes in it right now. Too bad I'll have to drive it to work like this tomorrow since the collection center isn't open yet.
And here's the view from the inside.
Visibility is overrated--both for driving and for seeing God's plan for our lives.
"For we walk (and drive) by faith, not by sight."
How wonderful! I have just begun subscribing to your blog and today, surprised that I read the name "Jim Urban" -- as I am part of the North Pittsburgh area as a new RC Coordinator.
ReplyDeleteYes, it is a mystery how God works. We are having our own God moments in our first hours in the relay. Thank you for sharing!