So Much Goodness!

Do you ever just sit in amazement at how good God is? It's as if He delights in blessing us. Oh, wait...His Word says that's exactly how He feels, doesn't it? Well, knowing God is good doesn't stop me from being blown away when He lavishes His love on me in such abundance, and that's exactly what He did this week.

Tuesday night was the annual fundraising banquet for our local Crisis Pregnancy Center and, several months ago, Pam Tebow committed to be the guest speaker for the event. I was grocery shopping right before Christmas when I ran into the Center's Executive Director. Knowing that I went to UF and love all things Gator, she asked me if my husband and I would like to sit at her table for dinner with Mrs. Tebow on April 10. That was an easy question to answer! In early March, she and I met again at a fundraiser for another ministry, and she asked if I would decorate our table that night, in keeping with the banquet's football theme. Since I just happen to have a few orange and blue things laying around, I happily agreed to do so. Then on Monday evening as I was putting the table's centerpiece together, my friend came and asked me if I would like to take Mrs. Tebow to the airport on Wednesday morning. Ummm....let me think about it....YES!

Pam Tebow is a beautiful woman with a passion for the Word of God. Her message at the banquet to over 1700 people communicated her commitment to life and family, and I was convicted about how many opportunities I've lost over the years with my own children. More than that though, I was reminded of how big God is (big enough to redeem my failures) and how worthy He is of my devotion and service. His plans for each of us...even the unborn...are for our welfare and not calamity, to give us a future and a hope. He really does delight in delighting His child, and the best way to insure He can do that is for me to cling to Him and rely on Him to plant dreams in my heart and then help me realize them.

That's obviously what He has done in the Tebow family. It's also obvious to me now that Tim's humility and charitable heart are genuine because I have seen those same qualities in his mother. When I picked her up at her hotel yesterday, she hugged me and made me feel like we were old friends, and that feeling only grew as we chatted on the ride. She is from Tampa, so we talked about "home". Her oldest daughter who is a missionary in Thailand was a Music major in college, so we had that in common as well. It took us over 45 minutes to make a 30 minute trip because of a traffic back-up on the interstate; it was as if God wanted to give me every second He could with this delightful woman, this walking example of Proverbs 31. Mrs. T and I talked for another five minutes or so in the drop-off zone at the airport and then prayed together in my car. She jotted some words in my husband's copy of her son's book and, because I had mentioned earlier that my daughter had a "wall of encouragement" in her dorm room, Pam wrote her a sweet note that she'll receive tomorrow. What struck me the most as we hugged goodbye was really not anything about Mrs.Tebow, myself, or even my friend who had provided me with this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Rather, I was just acutely aware that God had been very much with me on this little trip. He was the reason there were no awkward silences in the car. His love created the fellowship. His hand was the one doling out blessings.

When was the last time you stopped to think about all the ways, including those creative and subtle ones, that God demonstrates His love for you? As if His death and resurrection had not been enough and despite our failings, He gives us His presence, power, and so many gifts each day - grace to bear the bad news you've been dreading, the ability to meet that deadline you thought you'd surely miss, a simple hug from your child that lets you know he really does appreciate you, a husband who does something before you ask him to, a washing machine that spontaneously starts working after three days of not working--saving you from an expensive repair bill, or an hour alone with Pam Tebow. God-smiles, I call them. I'll never understand why He does it, but I'm going to try to do a better job of acknowledging His goodness, thanking him for it, and paying it forward.

"Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from The Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows." - James 1:17

~Maria