Sunday, October 24, 2010

a flower and 74 cents

I am currently on week 3 of my "marathon trip", visiting family and friends and sharing about my heart for Cambodia. I was in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and am now in Connecticut. North Carolina and Florida are next on my list of places to go.

Today at church, after I had spoken in the service, I felt a tap on my shoulder. It was a young boy, about 11 years old, and he whispered to me "Good luck with your work in Cambodia." Then he gave me this handful of change.


74 cents.

I was so touched by this gift and immediately thought of the story in the Bible of the woman who gave her last two coins as an offering and how her gift was so precious because she gave from her heart all that she had. So did this boy.

He also brought me the little flower after the fellowship time. Again, this seemingly small thing is actually a big deal to me.

My whole life, every time I see those name meaning plaques, I have always looked for my name. In the back of my mind, I know that it is the same thing every time: flower. Truth be told, I kinda found that boring and wished that there was something more spectacular about my name. I was shocked when, by pure habit, looked through a display of those cards last year and found that it listed a different meaning for Heather. It jumped off the page at me: "Cover of Beauty"

Heather is a flower that is pretty hearty, covering otherwise hard, peaty, barren lands and bringing beauty to it. And a flower brings glory to the Creator through it's beauty...it's existence. And that is my heart...to bring glory to my Creator as I live out my purpose and calling to Cambodia. I believe that the flower, which is purple like heather, was a little reminder of that for me today.

This young man didn't know that his two "small" gifts would be speaking volumes to me, but they did. And I am so grateful.

1 comment:

Cora said...

What a fabulous story...thanks for sharing! We forget so often of the little things that speak so loudly to us about our God and his faithfulness to us!

You are amazing for following our amazing creator! Praying for you often!

Tootles,
Cora