Gifts in Houston

Some of you who read my blogs regularly might recall that I have a daughter, son in law, and 3 grandchildren who live in Houston.   They were fortunate to suffer no flooding in their home or neighborhood during the recent hurricane.   The worse effects they suffered from the hurricane were loss of power and minor inconvenience in their travels.   While they suffered few effects, friends and co-workers of my daughter were not as fortunate as their homes, cars, and such drowned in waters.   One day a few weeks ago, I received a text message from my daughter that included a picture of her van packed full of all sorts of supplies such as box fans, humidifiers, wrecking bars, and the like.   She explained that the supplies were for a friend whose home had been flooded from the rain waters of the hurricane, and she had gotten the supplies from their church.  Good folk like you sent those items from churches across the country.  Though they did not know my daughter’s friend, they knew of the need.

As I think of that experience of my daughter’s van packed with items given by people she did not know across the country, it reminded of a story that is told in the gospel of John about hungry folks, a little boy, and Jesus.   We find the story in John 6 as follows:

Sometime after this, Jesus crossed to the far shore of the Sea of Galilee (that is, the Sea of Tiberias), ² and a great crowd of people followed him because they saw the signs he had performed by healing the sick. ³ Then Jesus went up on a mountainside and sat down with his disciples. ⁴ The Jewish Passover Festival was near.  ⁵ When Jesus looked up and saw a great crowd coming toward him, he said to Philip, “Where shall we buy bread for these people to eat?” ⁶ He asked this only to test him, for he already had in mind what he was going to do.   ⁷ Philip answered him, “It would take more than half a year’s wages^[a] to buy enough bread for each one to have a bite!”   ⁸ Another of his disciples, Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother, spoke up,⁹ “Here is a boy with five small barley loaves and two small fish, but how far will they go among so many?”

We know not the name of that little boy in that gospel story, and I think it certain that the thousands of people who ate their fill of loaves and fishes did not know his name either.  Yet, they benefited from his generosity.   As a friend of my daughter benefited from the generosity of people whose names they did not know, more often that we imagine we too benefit from people whose names are known only by God.  They grow the food we put on our table… they open the door for us at the convenience store… and they offer a smile that our soul sorely needs.  Have a joy-filled week. -   Pastor Randy Wall 

Prayer:    Lord and God, I thank you for the bounty of gifts that come to me from people whose names I know and people whose names are known by you.   As I have graciously been given, let me also graciously give; through Christ our Lord. Amen.