Act as if what you do makes a difference. It does.
~William James
We were flying home after spending the Thanksgiving holiday with our children in California. We spotted a red scooter in the in-flight catalog, and even though it was for children and teens, we thought it might be fun to use on the bike path behind our house. When we got home, I ordered two scooters from the catalog.
The next day, I was surprised to see the identical scooter at our local discount store. It was ten dollars less than in the catalog, so I bought the scooters at the store, saving twenty dollars plus shipping. And now we had our scooters right away.
I called the catalog company and canceled the order. It was no problem.
We rode those scooters all December.
On Christmas Eve, which was a Saturday, I was making French toast when the doorbell rang. My husband answered the door and a deliveryman handed him a very large package that he signed for. Jokingly he asked me, “Hey, is it close enough to Christmas that we can open a gift?”
“Sounds good to me,” I replied with a laugh.
I handed him the scissors and he carefully cut across the top of the brown wrapper and pulled out two boxes, each containing a red scooter. We were shocked. Looking at the return address label, my husband remarked, “I thought you canceled the catalog order.”
“I did. I’ll call again to make sure the scooters are deducted off my credit card and arrange to have them picked up.”
I called and patiently explained to the customer service representative that I had canceled my order on November 29th, but it had been delivered anyway. She put me on hold for several minutes and then came back on the line and assured me that my order had been canceled on November 29th. In addition, she said there were no charges to my credit card and they had no record of shipping two red scooters to my address.
She told me to keep the scooters.
Since it was Christmas Eve I suggested to my husband that we call our pastor and ask if he knew of a family that needed presents for their kids. When Pastor Kim answered, my husband explained, “Pastor, we have ended up with two new red scooters for free. We were wondering if you knew of any kids that might need a present.”
“Well this is certainly the right day for a miracle,” said the pastor. “You see, I don’t go to the church office on Saturdays because I am here all day on Sunday. But early this morning I had a feeling that I should go to my office. As soon as I walked in the door I received a phone call from a young mother of two elementary school children. She was crying and desperate because she had no gifts for them and their electricity and heat will be shut off on Monday. She was hoping someone from our church would help her. I told her I would call some members and see what I could do. I just hung up the phone from talking to her. And now you are calling with the very gifts she needs for her children.”
I was excited. “Will you please call her right back? Tell her we will bring the red scooters to you.”
“And the money to pay her utility bill too,” added my husband.
“This is indeed a morning to remember,” exclaimed Pastor Kim. “I’ll call her back and wait here for you.”
As I quickly wrapped each scooter in beautiful red and silver foil paper, I marveled at how this sequence of improbable events would help a young mother and her two children on Christmas Eve. My husband and I felt blessed to be part of this small Christmas miracle.
~Brenda Cathcart-Kloke
