Setting the table for Sunday lunch, I pulled back the centerpiece and table runner. I usually didn't bother with a cloth, which I always used to do, and started to put the dinner plates on the bare table. Well, a cloth would look better, I decided, and pulled a small lunch cloth from the drawer. But my flowered plates looked a little jarring on its colorful design. Oh well, it's just the three of us, I thought. My son was coming for dinner. On impulse, I replaced the plates with large white ones I retrieved from the top shelf of the cabinet.
"Oh, your table looks so nice!" Greg exclaimed. "It's so picturesque!" I was conscience stricken for the casual, half-hearted effort I had made, but glad I had changed the plates! Sometimes we think it doesn't matter if something is only for family, but they really do notice and remember!
Taking shortcuts had been my new normal lately. Until recently, most of my time has been spent running back and forth to get something for my husband as he recuperates from serious heart surgery a couple months ago. But his physical therapist tells us he needs to move around more, so I am to encourage him to get things for himself!
Today I went to the neighborhood market to buy some things Howard wanted. Walking into the store, I noticed a basket of fruit and a sign lettered with the words, "Parents, feel free to let your child take a banana or apple to eat while you shop." It went on to say that they wanted to promote healthy eating in children.
How thoughtful is that! It doesn't always take a lot of effort to make a difference in someone's life. Just a nice table to brighten a day, a nudge toward needed exercise, or a healthy snack for a child. Jesus tells of a man who invested a lot of himself to help a stranger in the story of the good Samaritan. He not only bound up the victim's wounds, but paid for his care in an inn until he recovered.
When our neighbor heard about Howard's hospitalization, he mowed and edged our over-grown lawn in our absence. Recently a new neighbor came over to meet us and to see if there was anything he could do. He visited with Howard on the porch, saying he had noticed us coming and going with the wheel-chair or walker and offered his assistance. Flowers, meals, and phone calls brightened our days when we got home from the hospital.
"Trust in the Lord and do good; so shalt thou dwell in the land, and verily thou shalt be fed," Psalm 37:3. In other words, feed on His faithfulness! He is good!
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