The Ladder

There is nothing like a good Memorial Box story at Christmas time!!
Sometimes, as is the case today, 
these stories serve to remind us that God is attentive to our thoughts,
even before we whisper the thoughts to Him!!
They might be my favorite of all surprises, 
because they remind us just how much He loves us and how
precious we are to Him!!!
So the other day I was Swip Swapping and came across a ladder for sale.
[Do you know what Swip Swap is?  
It’s kind of a yard sale
on Facebook in a defined area.
Join your area.  
 Buy.  
Sell.
And
“Porch Pick Up Only.”
“Take” 
“Next”
are all words that are associated with it.
   Can be almost addicting.
I mentioned it to Dw since we need a ladder.
The ladder would then be my Christmas present to Dw.
He said he wondered how heavy it was because it appeared to be a big one
and from just the description it sounded h.e.a.v.y.!
So I commented that I would “Take” it for the price listed if 
I could come over and see just how heavy it was.  
I was “Next” after someone above me “Passed”
so I headed over to check it out.
The lady had the near-empty garage open
and 
we greeted each other as I headed up the short driveway.
It turns out that I couldn’t even budge the ladder
so I graciously told her I couldn’t purchase it.
We laughed about how heavy it was!
As I turned to go, I saw that actually there were 
tables with items on them set up in the garage.
So I questioned…
“Are you about to have a garage sale?”
“No!  We already did that!”  
Oh!
Since I had been just a day before thinking of how 
nice it would be to get a electric water heater
to use for my tea or french press and spotting 
one on the table, I questioned,
“How much is your electric water pot??”
She said, 
“Well actually, I’m just boxing all this stuff
up to donate…I’m not the owner, just the realtor doing this
for the lady who used to live here, she’s moved out of 
the country…
so please, if you can use it
just take it!!”

Of course I had not had any idea…
but wow!  
I told her how tickled I was 
and what a gift that was!
She then asked,
“Is there anything else you can use??
Anything at all??
Please just take it!!”
And she helped me carry to the car…
a bigger casserole dish than I have…
A gorgeous spice rack loaded with spices….
[When Nehemiah saw it he was giddy…
we had not purchased Crushed Red Pepper in a long while
and he is particularly fond of them
and here we were with a whole bunch now.]

None of the kids had alarm clocks….
but now the girls room has one,
the boys room has one
and Liberty has one.

And just the night before I had been in the boys room
and discovered they were not using their plastic 
drawer for things but rather using it as a garbage can
[resourceful or something boys!]
Yet now they had a basically brand new one!

Oh and with some of the kids coming for Christmas
I had thought how nice it would be to have a air mattress…
and now we have a queen one….
And she said,

“Wait!  I have a pump here somewhere too.”

As she gathered up beautiful towels
and walked them out to the van she met the kids….
She loved the kids
and told me that every now and then 
she has things that we might need
and she was going to keep my number and
call me to share with us!
Then she also asked me, 
“Do you have a sewing machine?”
I told her I did and that it is not reliable,
but I pray over it and it starts working again.
She walked back to the garage and 
walked back with this.
I assured her that I really was okay.
But she insisted!!
I giggled and laughed….
The kids and I had gone to see if a ladder was light 
enough to buy for daddy for Christmas and we drove away with all kinds of
things that I had silently thought would be nice to have.
Only the Lord would know it.
It was as though each item had been hand picked for us!!
Like I said at the beginning,
times like these remind us all that the Lord is attentive
 to our simple thoughts!
What about you?

What or how has the Lord blessed you 
yet you didn’t even whisper
a word of it to anyone?

Please share!
Encourage us all!

7 thoughts on “The Ladder

  1. oh I just love it when the Lord blesses with just those things we hardly thought to ask for!! ! so often He provides like this for us also!! Merry Christmas! xoxo ellie

  2. Ahhh…He is just so faithful and good.
    LAST December I was 6 months pregnant and a small "lot" of good quality toys came across our local "swip swap". Having given away or sold many of our baby toys I decided to purchase this little bundle and put it up in anticipation of baby using it someday. Fast forward to March – I delivered baby. This fall she started sitting and I thought about that bundle of toys and went to get them in the basement and could NOT find them anywhere. My husband and I looked and looked. We've looked for months.
    Just last night I asked him to please go dig through the garage one last time in hopes that the toys would show up and our, now 9 month baby, might have them for Christmas. They were such nice Discovery Toy brand toys – perfectly developmental and all that jazz and I couldn't bear to think they were just gone after I'd gotten such a good deal on them! As he went down to the basement I started praying, "God, I know you know exactly where those toys are. Please just lead us to them. In the long run of things they don't mean a lot but tonight it just feels like they mean so much."
    I think it wasn't the toys as much as sometimes you just want to feel Him in the small moments, you know?
    As I stood at the stove He whispered to me…"You forgot about the secret door cubby under the basement stairs. Remember, you cleaned it all out and it was so nice and dry…ask Micheal to look under the stairs."
    Mike came up, emptied handed, as he's done several times in the last months, and I said, "oh hon, would you just go peek in that little door under the basement steps?"
    My hubby, he's so good to me. He went right down those stairs (again) and came up with a huge smile and a bag full of toys for our sweet babe's Christmas.
    Not because she wasn't going to have a single present to open. Not because the world revolves around these toys. Just because Jesus loves us enough to care about these moments and to remind a tired mama that He's here in every moment.

  3. Oh wow! how wonderful! and from my point of view, I am very glad for the new hopefully reliable sewing machine!
    But also for the kettle. Over here, with 210 voltage, people only ever have a kettle like that for tea. So much faster than using the cooker hobs.
    Love and Happy Christmas from Sandy in the UK

  4. This is just awesome!! The whole thing was great and then the sewing machine part just gave me chills! I'm just finishing up my own Memorial Box story that happened on New Year's Eve and I hope to be more consistent in writing down these stories and adding to my box in 2015! 🙂

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