Tuesday, November 6, 2007

When you ask, God answers...Just not always in the way you would think

The other day, I had one of those moments where God just totally wrenched on my heart to get it back in the right place. Ande and I were in Borders with Puckey & the Jib. We went back to the kids' section so Puckey could "ooh" and "ahh" over all the books (which she absolutely LOVES). So we're back there browsing around, and this couple comes back there. The young woman was pregnant (quite far along by the looks of her belly), and she was looking intently at one of the sections. The young man made some sort of comment like, "well, there's the kid's religion section over there...they gotta get to them early". I don't remember the exact words, but I do remember the snide tone of his voice and the haughty look on his face. The girl said something like, "uh-huh" and continued looking. I heard her say something about The Giving Tree and how she wanted to find that book. They were looking at a shelf with Shel Silverstein's books on it, but The Giving Tree wasn't there. After a few moments, the guy said, "Let's check the computer" and they walked away. I was pretty ticked off about his comment against religion, and had several smart retorts swirling through my head. For whatever reason I didn't say any of them when they were standing there. I DID say to Ande after they walked away, "Did you hear what he said? It made me want to punch him in his head!!" (Yeah, I know, GREAT Christian response, right? Good thing my body doesn't do what my heart and head sometimes want, or I'd be in BIG trouble.) So anyway, as I was leaving that section, I looked down and saw The Giving Tree. Now, being that this is one of my favorite books EVER (I cry every single time I read it), and I think the message of the book is similar to what God does for us so often (He gives and gives and we take and take), it only took me about half a second to decide what to do. I picked the book up and walked towards the couple. I said, "well, it's not a special edition or anything, but it comes with a CD. This is one of my favorite books.", as I handed it to the girl. She thanked me, and as I walked away I heard the guy say, "That was nice. It really surprised me." Now, I don't know if he saw the daggers shooting from my eyes when he made the comment about religious books for kids, or if he'd just never had something nice done for him before. Either way, I had been asking for God to help me to walk a better Christian walk, and He gave me the opportunity to do something nice for someone who said something that really offended me. Now, if only I can use ALL of the opportunities God gives me like that!!