There is at least one more story from my travels – this one is remembering a sweet gesture from 2 young boys sitting in the airplane seats ahead of me. We were in a jovial section of the back of the plane – behind me were many girl scouts – and in front of me were National Geographic-signed up travellers – all enjoyed the Galapagos Islands.

The woman next to me was chatty and the boys overheard me asking her where she is from – and they chimed in before her and said Germany – well, this woman was so shocked because it was only one conversation, she said, at a dinner, where she mentioned her roots – but she lived in California for a while now…  These boys picked up on the info – internalized it – shared it – a gift of recall. And a gift of friendliness. 

Later in the flight – more conversations between seats and I handed up two little plastic flamingos – gifts I brought WITH me – gave many out to whomever I thought…  A gift – no need to give me something back – just for fun. But when I handed the two statues up – the little boys decided to gift me each a purple skittle from their candy – so sweet – the action and the candy.

I didn’t expect any return gift from my gift – I just enjoyed seeing the oohs and aahs from people receiving them. I think that the sweetness of the candy came from a “oh we should give a return gift” – which is not always necessary…  and so we simply take the nice return gesture as nice – kids with good upbringing… Sweet…

How about the gift and gifts from the Lord? Well, we could never repay the fill of gifts that He gives us – we could never pay anything worthy of what He gives us – His Grace – His Mercy – His Life – His Everything for our Anything. And so we don’t pay it backwards – we pay it forwards – and share His Gifts with others – and we share PRAISE about Him to whomever will listen…

A Gift is a Gift – and a God Gift is well, WOW!

Well, I am glad those little boys got to go to the Galapagos – I am glad they are included in travel and in conversations and in life – they will be gifts to whomever they meet down the road – paying it forward – and sometimes back between the seats where only an eye is seen…

Sweet…

Amen