A Stranger's Kindness

"Each of you must bring a gift in proportion to the way the Lord your God has blessed you."
- Deuteronomy 16:17 (NIV)

The week after our wedding, my in-laws called me and said someone brought a gift to the church for us. I asked who it was from, and they said they didn't know. "What do you mean you don't know?!?" I asked them. They said a lady drives by the church every day on her way to Lafayette and saw "Congratulations Ashleigh & Jonathan" and God put it on her heart to get us a gift.

We couldn't get it until this past weekend, because it's a bit of a drive to get there. The gift was wrapped in gorgeous gold wrapping paper. We opened it and found 2 books (The First 90 Days of Marriage and Blessed to be a Blessing), along with a blank journal. In the card that came with it, she wrote a letter to us (front and back). Jon and I both looked at each other and thought it was nice for a total stranger to get us 2 books we could use. Once we opened the Blessed to be a Blessing book, $100 fell out.

What in the world? Why would a random stranger give us so much money?!?

I frantically went through the letter looking for a name, address, phone number. . .something. We found her name and phone number at the bottom of one of the letters (she wrote a few). I called her up and thanked her so much for her generous gift. I asked for her address and she said several times that she did not want to be thanked for this gift, rather, to thank God. God told her to do it, and she obeyed.

We're sending her a thank you card anyway. We also shot a thank you up to God that night.

All of these random acts of kindness lately...I'm thinking God is trying to tell me something. I'm not 100% sure what it is yet, but I hope I understand it soon. I have the feeling that I need to start with reading one of the books she gave us (Blessed to be a Blessing). Until I figure out what He's trying to say, I'll keep praying.