The Gift

Last Saturday we enjoyed one of Picken’s County’s finest events.  The jockey lot!
It’s like a giant yard sale.  GIANT.
Normally the jockey lot operates on Wednesdays and it’s just begun to open on Saturday and Sunday.
So last weekend we packed up and went “jockeying” on Saturday morning.

There were not a lot of vendors there last Saturday because, well, it’s just catching on.
But we were there for a purpose.
We just didn’t know it was a divine purpose.

Walking down the aisles looking at treasures such as knives, bread, homemade bird houses, used toilets, and tons of glassware we stopped to look at a table with a hodge podge of things including a really cool looking wood inlaid guitar.

Our oldest son plays and loves the guitar.  He actually has one electric guitar we bought and one that someone gave to us.  So we’ve been blessed already with one guitar.

But he was admiring this beautiful guitar with an asking price of $200.
Since I was not interested in thus said guitar I moseyed on down a couple of tables to look at a somewhat clean but beautiful used toilet.

Yea, just kiddin’.

A few minutes later here comes my son with a guitar strapped to his back with a look of excitement on his face.

“Mom, that man just gave me this guitar!!”

WHAT??

“Yea, mom.  Really.  I was just looking at it and he said I could have it.”

So like any well intended young (ha ha) mom I asked if he had thanked the man.
And he responded that he was so excited he forgot.  So he went back and thanked him while I held the guitar.

When Rocket Man returned from taking Baby Girl to the bathroom he got the story.  So the excitement began again.

Now, one strange part of this story is that neither Rocket Man nor I had paid much attention to this man.  Couldn’t tell you what he looked like or the other things on his table.  But my oldest son can!  Neither of us were a part of thanking the man.  It was all just between my son and the “guitar man”.

We continued walking around the Jockey Lot talking about how God provides for us.  My oldest has a very generous heart and gives freely.  He’s always blessing someone with his allowance or money he has.  We talked about how God sees our hearts and blesses us when we least expect it.  This was also a good lesson for my second born son because he struggles more with giving (like his mom).  I battle within myself over giving the smallest things at times.  It’s a place God has been working on with me for years.

When we were about to leave the Jockey Lot our first born decided he wanted to go thank the “guitar man” one more time.  So Rocket Man and I waited while he walked back down the aisle to thank the man.

When he returned we asked him what the man said and he responded, “He told me that he wanted me to have it and to use it for the Glory of the Lord.”

WHAT??
WOW!!

Being the visual person that I am I’m picturing this big warrior angel whispering in the man’s ear, “Give this child the guitar.”  And I’m thinking of how I would have wrestled with that request.  And I’m wondering if that man did.  I think he was immediately obedient.

So that led me to begin to thinking about Jesus smiling down on his servant’s trust and obedience.  I’m thinking about what immediate obedience sets in motion.  The lesson my oldest will never forget, the memory that we’ll carry with us as his parents, the lesson to my second born, and all the people’s lives HE will touch as my son tells the story, as we tell the story.

I remember how blessed we felt tithing my husband’s severance package.
And I pray that God will bless the Guitar Man.
And that one day when I get to heaven he’ll be there beside Jesus and I’ll see him and get to thank him myself.

Photo taken on my cell phone on way home from the Jockey Lot.