Have you ever been given a gift from a total stranger? Your having a bad day, everything seems to be going wrong. The light at the end of the tunnel is the proverbial train. You want to scream at the top of your lungs but you are so tired that you can't think straight and then out of no where you are given a gift that just suddenly changes everything.Nothing huge, but just enough to change your day. What goes through your mind when that happens? Do you see it as a gift from G-D or do you ask; whats the catch?
I remember a day when my car broke down. I had brought my brother to the train station and was getting ready to leave and I couldn't get my car to start. I was not a happy camper. This was before cell phones, so I had to find a phone and give my brother in law, Jason, a call to see if he could help. He was a bit more mechanically minded that I was at the time so I figured he might know. He picked up my wife on the way to me and then the 3 of us pushed and pulled and wiggled everything that we could think of to get it to work and nothing happened. The short side of this is that it wound up being something minor but we were stuck in this parking lot all afternoon while we tried various things, it was hot and we were hungry and tired. We finally got to the point of where we thought we knew what it was and Jason headed off to the parts store to get what we needed. But there we sat, getting hotter and hungrier by the moment and there was nothing we could do. To make it worse there was a Pizza place near where we were parked and we could smell the food but we had no money on us, we had given Jason what we had so all we could do was smell. Then the oddest thing happened. A man approached us and handed us a twenty dollar bill and simply said I thought you could use this, you look mighty hungry and tired. I'm not even sure we said thanks because we were so surprised, but here a total stranger blessed us with a gift and we were able to eat and refresh ourselves in the Air conditioning while we were waiting. The man apparently had no other agenda other then to see us blessed and I am guessing that in the end He will be blessed as well.
What made me think of this was is the story of Joseph's brothers when they returned to Egypt to buy more food. Remember that they had gone home the first time and not only did they have all the food that they had bought , but they also had all the money still in their bags. That scared them so so much that when they returned ,along with Benjamin,they brought all of that back plus more money to by food and they brought gifts as well. They didn't know how the money got there but they wanted to make sure that they were not considered to be thieves and they wanted to make it right. Upon their return however Joseph has them taken to his house and they assume the worst.They approached his steward and explained to him what had happened and that they were clueless as to how the money got there but they had brought all that back plus more to buy with. It's what the steward said to them that got my attention.
Look at Gen.43:23 But he said, Peace be with you, do not be afraid. Your G-D and the God of your father has given you treasure in your sacks; I had your money.
What is interesting here is that the Egyptian steward was likely the one who had put it there under Joseph's orders but rather then tell them that, he speaks peace to them and then he tells them that it was a gift from G-D.
How do you handle gifts from G-D? Do you recognize them for what they are or do you panic and tremble in fear? I think that many times we don't even see the gift because we have been so programmed to think that we are so low on the Totem pole that G-D would not take the time to bless us. I am sure that this is what the brothers felt, they knew what they had done to Joseph and they had 20 years to think about it an wallow in their guilt. So when Joseph had them taken to his house they believed that this was now going to be the time that they paid for their sins. Surprise! They were blessed instead.
I don't know whats going on in your life, but please understand that G-D is waiting to bless us and many times he does it in small ways that we don't even recognize, other times it may be something big. Perhaps it will be $20 so that you can have a pizza and cool off or it may be a bag of gold, but rather then fear and tremble, rejoice in the gifts that He has blessed you with and then go out and bless others.
Shalom,
Ignacio
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