James 2:14-17: "What good is it, my brothers, if a man claims to have faith but has no deeds? Suppose a brother or sister is without clothes and daily food. If one of you says to him, "Go, I wish you well; keep warm and well fed, " but does nothing about his physical needs, what good is it? In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead." (NIV)
What a multitude of material for writing I have been blessed with over the past couple of weeks! Our lives have continued to produce surprise after surprise, some of them not so good!
After recovering from an unplanned fall and ankle injury, I had some outpatient surgery. After I had recovered enough to get on our riding mower, I jumped on an opportunity to cut our long grass. The children enjoyed some much-needed outside time. But, it was takiong a bit longer than I wanted to complete the job. Lunch time had come and gone, and I was finally beginning to wrap things up. i was mentally planning what I could possibly fix for a quick lunch for everyone. Grilled cheese is fast, but oh no, we have no bread and no cheese! Time for a grocery trip. Back to lunch...Well, I figured pizza was the next big thing. We didn't really have the money to splurge, but the convenience was more important right now!
So, as I began driving the mower to the shop, I enjoyed watching our husband with one of our sons. As I came to a stop, Josh was laughing. He told me that Isaac had said that he wanted to go to Pizza Hut for lunch. I said that I was going to order pizza anyway, so why not?! The kids were all so excited at the idea that there was no fussing when told to take baths.
As we walked in, there were some credits on one of those claw games. And, of all the luck, Craig snatched a toy on the first or second try. Naturally the other three wanted something, too. So Daddy promised that if they ate a good lunch, they could each try to get a toy out of the game. With it being so late, they were starving and ate more than a good lunch. So, as promised, Daddy went to pay for our meal and get change for the game. He was gone for several minutes and returned with a stunned expression on his face.
He said, "I don't know who this guy is, the bald man in the blue shirt. Do you? Because I think our children need to go thank him. He just paid for our entire meal!" WOW!! The oldest three went to thank the gentleman while our youngest suddenly decided she was shy and stayed with me!
Josh found out that he was once a mayor in a Texas city. He had resigned due to a career change that required him to be gone a lot. He was travelling through Jennings on business when he stopped at Pizza Hut for lunch. He said that watching the six of us walk across the parking lot to get inside reminded him of his own family and touched his heart. he touched ours as well!
This event prompted me to write. I found the passage in James that reminded me of our day. While we were not technically without food, this man's actions eased our burden of paying for that particular meal. In his faith, he acted. I'll close with the chorus of a very fitting song:
And they'll know we are Christians by our love, by our love
Yes, they'll know we are Christians by our love.
If we live in faith with a heart for God, our actions will tell the whole world that we are Christians.
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