Yesterday, we experienced blessings via unexpected sources - the pharmacy and the post office.
In the morning, Heather and the girls made a trip to Target to get those stuff kinds of things that you need to get before going on a trip. She also needed to get two months worth of her medications. She went to the pharmacy expecting to pay regular non-insurance price for both of them since she was getting extra and getting them out of the ordinary sequence. Pharmacies seem to be the place where we have issues with customer service the most, so we've tried out most of the pharmacies in town. To make a long story short, the pharmacist offered to give Heather a two month supply of her medications and hold off on processing the first month until Monday, when insurance would expect to see it processed, and wait until after we get back in July to have us come in and pay for the second month.
In the afternoon, Emilia and I went to the post office to see what we should do about our mail. We went up to the counter and asked the postal clerk about her recommendations. She pulled out a yellow form and said that they can hold mail for 30 days, but for anything more she would need a supervisor's permission. Then, she gave us a kind of you aren't going to make me ask are you. Just then, Sheldon Jones (Heather sings with him on the worship team and I play with him in a basketball league at church) walked by and said, "Hi, Andy." I returned his greeting, and the postal clerk asked him about holding our mail. He was the supervisor, and our mail is being held for the entire time we're gone.
One of the ideas that has often intrigued me is that of the double blessing - the birthright blessing and the Abrahamic blessing, or the blessing given to Abraham that his descendants would be a source of blessing for all nations on earth. According to my understanding, the double blessing would have been passed from Abraham to Isaac and then Isaac to Jacob.
Through this experience so far, we feel like we have been doubly blessed. We have been given the opportunity to go through the prayerful support and the contributions of many - pharmacists and post office supervisors included. We also carry the responsibility of passing on the blessings we have been given with students who will go places and do things we would never be able to do.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Andy,
I really like this post. Good stories. Lately, I have come to understand "blessing" a bit differently than before. I think blessing is not about us, as if there is something about us or our behavior that merits God's blessing; rather, we are, as you say, blessed to be a blessing. Blessing has more to do with God's mission in the world than it does with our personal morality. I'm thinking of the story of Jacob and Esau. Jacob deceived yet he was the brother God loved and blessed. Your thoughts?
You raise a very interesting question. The blessing to Abraham was one about the future. I don't know all the implications of either of these ideas, but I think I have two initial responses.
1) Was Jacob chosen because he was better equipped? I am not sure our giftedness always plays in to God's work.
OR
2) God's blessing and promise to Abraham was going to continue to be passed down regardless...but I also think the blessing itself was not passed down to Jacob's oldest son, but rather carried out through Joseph, who I guess was also an oldest son though not the oldest son. So, does it not being recorded as being spoken to Reuben (I think) mean God's blessing stopped or was just carried out without it needing to be spoken from father to oldest son? I wonder then if this is another example of God's creativity. He sees that the system that had been established would no longer work, so he creates a new system. I guess maybe this would be a third new system...man alone is not good, so God creates woman; eat the fruit and surely die, but human's continue to live albeit in a state of separation from God.
Post a Comment