A Foretaste of Thanksgiving
My kids love walking around the block. During Covid that has been one of their few moments of freedom they enjoy. That way they have met all of the neighbors and often enjoy a little conversation while out. They are pretty well-known in our neighborhood. The other evening, the two of them went for their evening walk. But only Toni came home. “Where is your brother?”, I asked, not trying to think of all the bad in the world. “He is still talking to that lady a few houses to the left, the one that gave us candy the other day.” I didn’t know her and got a bit worried. Hansel and Gretel have had a great influence on my thinking, I have to admit.
So, I walked out to meet that lady. When approaching her house, I heard Theo say: “Well, you don’t have to bring it, but I would be happy if you wanted to.” I saw the lady go back in and asked Theo what was going on. “She is going to get me a baby for my stroller.” Right, Theo had taken a little stroller today just because he enjoys chasing around with it.
A minute later she stepped back out, holding a baby-sized doll gently in her arms, dressed in hand-knitted clothes. Carefully, she handed it to Theo, and he sat her into the stroller. I watched and waited. The lady’s eyes lit up with joy. Theo took the baby for a short walk, inspected her eyes, tried to put her to sleep. “This doll is very old”, the lady explained. She collects dolls and no one ever plays with them. Her grandchildren are my kids’ age but live far away.
After a while, I asked Theo to give back the doll. But the lady refused. “No, it’s his now. It makes me so happy to see him have her.” She couldn’t stop smiling. Theo couldn’t stop smiling. “Thanks, a lot. This is my first own doll.” (Which isn’t true, he had one back in Germany but didn’t bring it to the U.S. and can’t remember that.) We walked back home, and Theo got busy making his baby’s bed, changing her, putting her to sleep. And I couldn’t really believe what had just happened. How this lady had jut thankfully given away something that was very close to her heart. And how happy it had made at least 3 people at once: Her, Theo, and me.
"You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion, and through us your generosity will result in thanksgiving to God."
(2 Corinthians 9:11)
Wishing you a thankfully giving season and lots of things to be thankful for, Pastor Tia!
