Unexpected Kindness

Unexpected Kindness.  It’s what we drove up to on Saturday afternoon.  We were headed back home from our beach trip.  We were tired of being in the car.  We were  not excited about unloading all of our stuff.  We were kind of hungry with no good food in the house.  The kids were DONE with being in the car.  We made our way down the road and went to turn in and saw this:

These beautiful flowers were on our porch, along with a lot of fresh mulch in our beds that had been filling up quickly with weeds.  Tall weeds.  Ugly weeds.  The porch hasn’t had flowers on it since we moved in a year ago!  It was so pretty!  My porch has never been so inviting.

We were totally blown away.  I was, in particular, because I knew God had ordained this.  You may think that is crazy, but let me explain.  First of all, Josh and I have this house up for sale…and we are about to have to put the other house up for sale as well.  And that is all fine by us, but it is not fun for us.  Lots of mental, emotional and spiritual energy has been used throughout the past four months or so.  We are the better for it, this I know.  So we were at the beach with my family resting, relaxing, enjoying some down time.  I was able to enjoy early morning sunrises while opening my Bible and studying the book of Ruth.  This very morning I had opened up to do the study and read the title, “Unexpected Kindess.”  I read about the kindness of Boaz to Ruth and how it applies to the kindness of God to me.  I was encouraged and humbled as I reflected on all the the Lord has provided for me and protected me from, in my very lowest of lowest times as a sinful human being.  One of the author’s questions was “When was the last time someone did something overwhelmingly kind for you?”  I pondered that question, but didn’t have an answer.  I mean, no doubt I have had many kind things done for me or my family, but nothing was coming clear in my mind, so I just kind of moved on.

I think the Lord set me up for the answer to that question.  He wanted something fresh for me to write down, and so He gave it to me through the unexpected  and overwhelming kindness of friends.  Of brothers and sisters in Christ, and I was so humbled and blessed.

Folks from our Sunday School class gave of their money and their time to show love to us!  Even a sweet friend said she was so excited and wondered about what we would think when we drove up today!  Mental energy, expended on us!

I thought of Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing from selfish ambition or vain conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves, do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others.”

They clearly were not looking out for their own porch and yard as they were spending their time and money on mine.  I was blown away by their regard for Josh and me.  Praise the Lord for Christian friends who encourage us and love us…at just the perfect time.  Praise the Lord for His undeserved kindness towards us, Who “while we were helpless, at just the right time, Christ died for the unrighteous.” (Romans 5:6)    And add to this that I leave Tuesday for a very special trip far away.  At one point I thought the timing couldn’t be any worse, but oh how wrong I was.  I don’t know why exactly, but I am certain that it is the perfect timing for me to go and show some unexpected kindness to some gals I don’t even know.  To look our for others interests instead of my own.  To expend some energy on encouraging someone else, to be a refreshment to them, as the Lord has been to me in so many different ways.