[Faith-talk] Daily Thought for Thursday, August 15, 2013

[Paul]

Well, here we are on a Thursday afternoon, at least that's when this is being written.  I hope that your day is going well or went well, by God's matchless grace and His providential care.

I'm not completely certain of this, but I believe that the writer of this article you are going to read is either totally blind or partially sighted.  Her name is Malinda Fillingim and she lives somewhere in South Carolina.  Does anyone here know her who happens to reside in the Palmetto State? This inquiring mind wishes to know.  Anyway the title of her article is "A Yard Sale Witness" and is rendered as follows:

We were moving, again.  Seems like we have moved more than most folks.  But the upside of having made so many moves is that I know how to have a good yard sale!

Items were priced to sell, tagged and sorted.  Clothes were in great shape, some still had the store tags on them.  Yep, I never lost that weight I wanted to lose when buying those outfits.

Brand new household items were ready to find a new home, some gifts I could never use.  Who knows how to use an electric toenail file? Not me! How many heated pillows does one need anyway? Six? That's five too many!

Dishes that looked brand new sat ready to greet foods I never cooked before.

Yep, I am the queen of yard sales, shedding things as we move, tossing out the old and getting ready for the new.

I am also one who likes to share the love of God.

And a really good day is when I can share the love of God at a yard sale, where people are looking for bargains, but find something that money cannot buy:  God's love.

It began with Jose, a three-year-old boy who started throwing my daughter's discarded balls at me.  I threw them back, but he was not sure how to catch a ball.  I had fun teaching him, and together we played catch while his grandmother looked for clothes for him.  I apologized that the only clothing I had was for girls, but I did have a lot of books Jose might like.

Between her broken English and my broken Spanish, we managed to communicate well enough that Jose took home several great books about people from the Bible and a few balls, all for a very discounted price.  She kissed my cheeks as she left and patted my hand, thanking me over and over.  How happy I am knowing that Jose has read the same books my children grew up on.  Who knows? One day he might pitch in the World Series, throwing balls straight and hard.

Beth and her husband bought the rocker where I sat singing lullabies to my children.  They were expecting their first child in a few months and the price was right for them, at least half off the already low price.  We talked about raising children, their fears, and I told them I would be praying for them, which brought a smile to their faces.

Mary got my kitchen table for her son who was returning from Iraq and needed furniture for his new apartment.  Sarah got lots of clothing for her church's clothes closet, all really cheap, I might add.  Nadine and I talked a long time before she took off with the ping-pong table my daughter and I kept in the garage, where we played vicious games, opening up long lines of communication.  Nadine was using it for her daughter who had come home with ten more piercings than she left with the night before.  Nadine thought the ping-pong table might bring them together.  We prayed about it all before she loaded it into her pickup truck.  I hope they are having as much fun as my daughter and I did, even when I lost.

People came and talked for what seemed like forever, there under the hot summer sun.  But I listened.  Seems some people are just lonely, looking for someone to listen to them, to hear their sorrows, or just to talk with them.  Pretty soon I began to bring out more chairs, pass out cold bottles of water, and invite folks to just come and sit a while.  It began to be more like a yard sit-in.  I looked around and saw people talking, laughing, and enjoying meeting people they would otherwise never know, people spending a Saturday morning looking for a good find, only to find out the best thing to find is a person who cares about you.

Finally, my goods were about gone.  It had been a good day, talking, laughing and discussing issues of faith and family.

I had not made as nearly as much money as I needed to fund our move, but I felt very rich.

A lady who had lingered came and asked me about an old wooden bread bowl.  As we talked about it, she said, "You have been a yard sale witness today.  I have watched you and I sense the love of God just flowing out from you."

That night, as I packed up my items for donation to the Salvation Army, I smiled.  As a little girl I had always wanted to be a missionary.  Who knew my mission field would be my own front yard?

And there you have Malinda's article for today.  You will read more of her work not too long from now.  She also lived for a time in North Carolina, but I don't know if her move was from North to South Carolina or vice versa.  Anyway I hope you enjoyed reading it.

And now I am about to do my second complete walk around my block where I live.  This morning I was greeted by a party who has a female pit bull dog.  We have become the best of friends, so much so that she took my left hand with her paws and would have led me into her world, but her owner wouldn't permit this to happen.  After extricating my hand from her paws at the recommendation of her owner, she and her two puppies started to cry, and I went on my way.  Who knows, but maybe I'll enter the world of the canines.

And now may the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob just keep us safe, individually and collectively, throughout this night or day and especially in these last days in which we live.  Your Christian friend and brother, Paul