A story that will warm hearts this beautiful season of celebrating the birthday of the King:

It all started a couple of weeks ago when I posted a picture of a few of the Memorial Boxes that I was about to auction.

A friend of mine, who happens to be a precious single mom to a sweet pile of treasures – both adopted with special needs and birthed, texted me to say that she had her eye on one of them in particular.  We texted back and forth and after a bit she said that everyone had better move over because she was ready to do some good ol’ cyber-trampling to get it.  That cyber-trampling line really struck me funny – she is hardly the “trampling” type.   It made me giggle off and on all day.

To be perfectly honest, as I had been posting the pictures of the Memorial Boxes, I prayed that God would at least have someone buy each one.  A panicky thought went through my mind – what if no one wanted any of them?

So the day rolled around and the auction began and soon every single Memorial Box had a bid and before long some took off like wildfire, including the one my wanna-be-cyber-trampling-single-mom-friend had wanted!!

A few hours into the bidding I saw that one of my dearest friends {whose neck I have hugged} had begun bidding and I messaged her about how crazy all this bidding had gone in no time.  I told her how my single-mom friend had been teasing that she was going to cyber-trample for the very one she herself was bidding on, but this single mom friend actually hadn’t even had a chance to jump in.  The box that she had loved had now lurched into an unreachable place even for the most dedicated cyber-trampler.

It was a benign conversation between my bidding friend and I about my single-mom non-bidding {but cyber-trampling-wanna-be} friend.  I had merely told her because I thought that she would find the very thought of  “cyber-trampling” comical.  I was still giggling at the words.

The next day the auction ended and each box was sold and the results left us praising the Lord for His beautiful provision through friends around the country.

And about that time I got a message from my precious bidding-friend that read something like this:  “Please send the Memorial Box to your single friend.  It is hard being a single mom.”  

 

I was stunned!!  I hadn’t seen that coming at all!!

I couldn’t even read the message to Dw without choking back tears.   I wrote to my sweet friend and told her what a generous thing she was doing and how I knew my single-mom friend would be blown away.

I didn’t tell my single-mom-friend any of this, but did ask her for her address.  She texted back asking if I was coming to visit.  I told her to pray for me, cause I was about to start the jet-pack that was strapped to my back and I’d be in flight any moment.

A couple of days later she kind of asked why I needed her address and again I joked with her. I was not giving her any idea what she was about to receive.

Then one morning I had a voicemail from my single-mom-friend.  I hadn’t heard my phone ring, and actually that was a blessing. Because I was able to play the voicemail for my sweet hubby too.  And frankly, I wish I could play it for all of you.  She was sobbing.  Literally. I could barely understand her.  She sobbed and sobbed and sobbed.

She went on to say that it had been a rough week and when she saw the return on the package she couldn’t imagine what I would be sending her but it had made her smile.  She was about to leave to take her kids to school and daycare and head to work but stopped to open it.  When she saw what it was – the very Memorial Box she had wished for – she fell to her knees sobbing.   She sobbed and sobbed and sobbed.  Her precious little pile were worried about her asking over and over, “Mommy, why are you crying??”

And two friends, who don’t know each other at all, were joined through the selfless, generous gift of one to the other.

Give a life-giving gift to someone unsuspecting this Christmas season.  

Make a meal for a family with someone in the hospital.

Give a gift to a Veteran.

Drop off groceries to someone who has lost their job.

Watch the kids of a single mom so she can have some time off.

Send a care package to a soldier deployed.

Visit the residents in a nursing home.

Invite a single mom and her kids over for dinner.

Make it a life-giving, generous Christmas!  

PS  Tomorrow is the last day of the Rescuing Ruby sale to help bring our treasures home.  Details in previous post!