Dishes off Facebook Marketplace. More importantly, FREE dishes. They’re used…they have some chips. That’s okay, I’ll take them. We loaded them into my car and as if I needed to explain why I was accepting free dishes, I shared with the stranger that I recently left my home and it was just easier to leave the dishes. She asked how many kids I had and if this would be the only dishes we would have. I told her yes, but that it was okay, this set will be more than enough. She said she had another set and insisted I take those too. “I’ve been through two divorces and both times I left behind most of my things…I get it.” I breathed a sigh of relief and thanked her again. Then as I left she thoughtfully told me to message her if I ever wanted to talk.

As I drove home with not one, but two, sets of free dishes clanking around in the back seat of my car, I reflected on how I have been blessed over and over by the kindness of others in the past few months. From family, friends and complete strangers. Both big things and little things. So to say I am grateful this Thanksgiving week is a huge understatement. I am in absolute AWE over how God cares for us and abundantly provides over and over. He uses the people in our lives and strangers that he intentionally places in our path to bless us and also to be a blessing.

As we count our blessings this Thanksgiving, remember that we all have our stuff. Stuff we carry. Stuff we move. Stuff we leave behind. Stuff we need. Stuff we give. Stuff we receive. Some stuff is free and some costs us a great deal. And like free dishes, we all have chips. Some small and barely noticeable, and others big and ugly. There is one thing for certain though: God will use our stuff, chips and all, for something beautiful.

“Our love for others is our grateful response to the love God first demonstrated to us.” 1 John 4:19

Author: Elizabeth