‘I just whipped this up!’

Have you ever found yourself embarrassed or overwhelmed by a generous gift someone has given you or by the time and effort someone else has expended on your behalf? Realising how much someone else has put themselves out for us can be a humbling experience, don’t you think? Yet it can also be heart-warming and life-giving when we are able to accept such a gift with grace and truly receive the love the giver wants to convey to us.

I can remember quite a few moments in my life when someone did something amazing for me. On one occasion, I wanted to attend a particular three week prayer training course, but the several hundred dollars required to do so was too much for us. Imagine my shock when a young woman at our church told me she felt God wanted her to pay for me to attend. At first, I was reluctant to accept such a generous offer, but she insisted. In the end, I accepted—and that course turned out to be vital for me in so many ways.

Then there was the time when I was tired and unwell but still needed to keep going as part of our church ministry team. One day, I arrived home to find a big box on our doorstep. When I investigated, I found about a dozen containers with casserole meals in them, all neatly labelled—but with no name or clue as to the giver. What a wonderful, anonymous, sacrificial gift!

Then last week, I received another wonderful surprise. I had been asked to speak at a women’s event in a new church in western Sydney. As I finished my input, my friend who had invited me stood up to thank me. Then she opened a large bag, took out a beautiful quilt she had made and held it up.

‘I just whipped this up for Jo-Anne!’ she blithely told us, as she presented it to me.

What an understatement! Even I, with my limited knowledge of such things, could imagine how many hours of fabric choosing, arranging, sewing and neatening had gone into making such a precious gift, not to mention the cost. I was gobsmacked. My friend had previously told me about the quilt and that she thought God might want me to have it, but I had forgotten about it. And I certainly did not expect her to hand it over that afternoon.

Immediately, my mind went to the account in Matthew 26 of a woman pouring an alabaster jar of expensive perfume over Jesus’ head. The disciples complained that the perfume could have been sold and the money given to the poor. But Jesus said to them:

Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. (7)

Now I am not Jesus. And I was not being prepared for my burial, as Jesus was. Yet, as I received my quilt, I felt my friend had also done a beautiful thing to me. I was moved to tears—I felt humbled and privileged, as if Jesus himself was blessing me with this gift.

So … what resources have you been given to express God’s amazing love to others? Could God perhaps be challenging you to ‘whip up’ a beautiful thing for someone else?