As I was leaving the Widows Lunch, the maker of the delicious apple pies, sent me home with two generous servings on a cheery valentine plate even though I told her I didn’t eat sugar, and the Salesman didn’t need it. I had a little conversation with the Lord as I was putting the plate on a low shelf in our refrigerator so that the Salesman would not think the Keebler elves had brought him a present.
I told the Lord that we really didn’t want this gift or need it as I grumbled through trying to hide it in and among the fruits and vegetables. I didn’t hear the Lord say anything in response to my complaining till I was heading out the door today to an appointment, I heard that still small voice say:
“You could take the plate that has two servings of pie on it to Pat and Joyce at your 1 PM appointment.”
The voice wasn’t loud.
The tone wasn’t demanding.
The gentle words were a solution to the gift I didn’t want or need.
Joyce is a recent widow, and because she runs and operates a full-time business will probably never sit around the table with us at an official widow’s luncheon. Pat, who is in her office has been a widow a little longer. She too, because of work will probably never sit round the Supporting Hearts table; but God loves them, and sometimes He asks us to be his hands and feet to let people know they are loved. ♥️
The older I get the more I am learning to follow those Holy Spirit promptings when they come. I’ve not always been an attentive listener or an active doer to the instructions of the “Friend that is closer than a brother.”
I walked into the shop pie plate in hand and while I was standing in the lobby waiting, in walked an acquaintance of mine with a plate of cake and asked if Joyce was available. The receptionist told her the same thing she’d told me: It would be a minute, Joyce was getting ready for her next appointment.
It was at that point I heard the theme music to Rocky Balboa start on the tape player of my mind. You know the music that plays as he is running up the steps in triumphant victory.
Why the Rocky music?
Because I have gotten it wrong so many times when I have felt a prompting of the Holy Spirit to do something, and Today, I got it right! Hallelujah! And the confirmation for me before even seeing Joyce was in the other woman being there with me with a similar gift and portion on a plate, waiting to bless Joyce, too.
I will never forget the words of a friend who years ago, said to me that the Lord told him he wasn’t the first person that the Lord had to asked to do a particular task; but he was the first to have responded.
I want to be a first responder to the Lord’s work and will and ways.
The lesson for me today was multifaceted:
If someone wants to give you a gift, receive it because you may be a conduit to someone else’s want or need.
God can use anybody and anything.
God always hears what we tell Him.
God always answers.
God may prompt several people to do similar actions.
God wants us to be real in our communication with Him – He was ok with me a’telling Him I didn’t want or need that pie. I can almost see Him now nodding as I grumbled and hid that unwanted gift among my fruits and veggies.
It didn’t matter to Joyce who had arrived first; but it mattered that we arrived. She saw us together, sweets in hand and the smile on her face when she saw us waiting for her was priceless.
I’m telling you, it was better than any commercial I’ve ever seen. Wish the Super Bowl peeps had a reel of my 1pm today.
Joyce tearfully told me when I was getting ready to leave that I could never know how much that meant to her today, at that very hour.
Y’all. That very hour. 🙌🏻
She could tell me the pie was delicious because she’d made a pot of coffee and she and Pat enjoyed it during my appointment there. She shared how the Lord brought two of us today to encourage her in a way that she personally needed. ♥️♥️
Two widows needed a cheery little plate of homemade apple pie today and bless the good Lord, I got to be the bearer of a blessing and feel like Rocky Balboa today without running up all those steps.
