Spiritual Shopping

A great memory from two years ago:  My wife called to me from the kitchen saying she needed me to go to the grocery store for her.  I was tired of reading, so I jumped up, grabbed the shopping list, and headed for the car.  I parked at Wall-Mart and walked toward the door.  But as I scanned over the items on the list, my heart sank.  My wife had not been specific.  Now this may not seem to be a problem to you, but it was for me.  I knew better.  There are so many ways that a man can mess up if the list isn’t specific.  Creamy or crunchy peanut butter?  Great Value or Peter Pan?  Small, medium, or large?  But I was prepared.  I pulled out my cell phone.  I was not going to be trapped.  As I quizzed my wife on the first item, she reminded me that the groceries were for Brother So-and-so, a dear brother at church has been laid up for several weeks now, and our church is having an old-fashioned pounding for him tomorrow.  As I ended the call, a warm feeling spread over me.  Hey, I couldn’t mess up.  Whatever I picked would be right.  This was fun.  Then, as I reached for the Great Value strawberry jam, I had another wonderful thought.  This was no ordinary shopping trip; this was a spiritual shopping trip!  This wasn’t for me; this was for the Lord.  So, I put back the Great Value jam and picked out Smucker’s Jam and put it into my basket.  It felt good.  As I pulled items off the shelves, I smiled.  I was doing God’s work.  When I got to the check-out, I even hoped that the total would be larger than it was.  Driving home, I remembered the words of Jesus that Paul quoted in Acts 20:35, “… It is more blessed to give than to receive.”  It was then that I realized that those words were true.  Tomorrow my brother in Christ will be blessed, but tonight, I am blessed.  Thank you, Lord.