God on eBay?

On this day, what I was seeking, though, was shoes. With the high gas prices added to living far from civilization — 30 miles to the nearest shopping — I've learned to buy on-line. Of course it's not as if someone had to twist my arm. The world has become an oyster at my fingertips — Bah-ha-ha-ha! Sorry, I don't know where that came from.

Anyway, when it was time to buy new Size 10, Ladies, New Balance Running Shoes — all-terrain, preferably — I went to eBay, where I knew I would spend less. I found them, bid on them, and won them. Woo hoo.

About a week later, on that particularly clear spring morning, the UPS man delivered my package. I opened it and was surprised to see, along side my shoes, a small item wrapped in pastel pink tissue paper with fuchsia ribbon. I unwrapped it to find a tube of perfume-scented hand lotion, which I promptly applied. I would thank the sender later.

I went through the rest of the morning with a cheerful spirit, thinking about my mom who had died many years ago. She stayed at my side into the afternoon of that beautiful day before it dawned on me why I was thinking of her. She used to send me small wrapped surprises in the mail.

As soon as I made the connection, I went to the computer and logged onto eBay and found the sender's address and wrote her a note to thank her for the kindness of that small gift which had brought me such joy. Minutes later "Kira" replied that she too had lost her mother and that her mother also used to send her small gifts by mail. She added that my writing to thank her had really blessed her day.

Blessed? Added to the tone of the email and the gesture of the gift—could it be?

A couple more emails back and forth and we ascertained, indeed, we were sisters in the family of Christ — sisters who had blessed one another's day. Kira wrote she sends a small gift with everything she sells as a way of saying thank you and periodically she receives a response and of those responses, sometimes she meets a member of her Christian family.

What a beautiful testimony. It made me wonder if I send out "calling cards" in my interactions with strangers, signs that those who "know the secret handshake" would pick up on. Taking it further, do I send out "touches of God" others could feel whether they personally knew their Savior or not? Touches that might lead the way to Him?

Of course, God is everywhere. I shouldn't feel wonder finding Him anywhere. Everywhere I go, I should seek Him and every place I visit, I should reveal Him through loving words and kind gestures.

Let your conversation be gracious and effective so that you will have the right answer for everyone (Colossians 4:6 NLT).