Thank You!

I don’t know how to even begin to thank everyone for their kindness and generosity. I really can’t wrap my brain around it. A couple days later, it still seems so surreal. I can’t manage to process something of this magnitude. I just sit here, staring at my computer, watching the amount of donations add up higher and higher. I read and reread all your comments and emails offering support, encouragement, prayers, and thanks. And every single time I read them, I cry. I tried to make a video blog to thank everyone, but every time I pressed record and tried to talk, I started bawling and you couldn’t understand a word I was saying.

A lot of people have tried to help me make sense of it all. My friend, Kelli asked me, “You have faith that God will care for you, right?”

“Yeah,” I answered, not knowing where she was going with this.

“Then let Him care for you! He uses His people to care for each other. It’s not just about you. It’s about letting God work in the hearts of people and moving them to show compassion for another.”

I immediately thought of that old joke.

It had been raining for days and days, and a terrible flood had come over the land. The waters rose so high that one man was forced to climb onto the roof of his house.

As the waters rose higher and higher, a man in a rowboat appeared, and told him to get in. "No," replied the man on the roof. "I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me." So the man in the rowboat went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him.

The waters rose higher and higher, and suddenly a speedboat appeared. "Climb in!" shouted a man in the boat. "No," replied the man on the roof. "I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me." So the man in the speedboat went away. The man on the roof prayed for God to save him.

The waters continued to rise. A helicopter appeared and over the loudspeaker, the pilot announced he would lower a rope to the man on the roof. "No," replied the man on the roof. "I have faith in the Lord; the Lord will save me." So the helicopter went away..

The waters rose higher and higher, and eventually they rose so high that the man on the roof was washed away, and alas, the poor man drowned.

Upon arriving in heaven, the man marched straight over to God. "Heavenly Father," he said, "I had faith in you, I prayed to you to save me, and yet you did nothing. Why?" God gave him a puzzled look, and replied "I sent you two boats and a helicopter, what more did you expect?"

I tried explaining to my kids how God cares for us. I said, "God is not way up there in heaven, looking down at people who are going through hard times and saying, 'Wow, sucks to be you!' He's right here next to us, saying, 'I got your back. Trust me.'"

{You know the only thing Clay took away from our little talk, right? That's right! "Sucks to be you!" I'm sure he went to school on Friday and when a little kid tripped and fell, there was Clay saying, "Sucks to be you!" I can just see his teacher saying that she'd lost her book and couldn't remember where she'd put it. "Ha! Sucks to be you!" Clay would respond. Sigh. I really need to choose my words more carefully around him.}

And then I thought of how it makes me feel to give to others. I love being able to help someone out, in whatever small way I can. It makes me feel great! It makes me feel that, in this world of injustice and pain, I can do something to make a difference. Is my individual act making a huge difference? Maybe not in and of itself, but as I’ve written on my blog several times in the past, you never know how far reaching your one act can travel. I pray that there were some new people who happened along my blog in the past few days and saw the outpouring of generosity and compassion from my readers. And maybe they weren’t moved to help me, a person they don’t know, but they were moved to make a difference somewhere for someone. Perhaps they went out and shoveled an elderly neighbor’s driveway, or brought a casserole to a member of their church who just had surgery, or called an old friend simply to tell them they’re thinking of them, or donated money to help with the flooding in Australia. It’s all good. And one act of kindness can spread so far.

Before Christmas, when Jackson was in the hospital, depressed, he drew this picture.





He drew a circle that represented him. He then drew three lines branching out from that circle representing three people for whom he’d done random acts of kindness. From those three circles, he drew several others branching off to represent the acts of kindness that the three people were inspired to perform. And so on and so forth until (several hours later) he’d filled the entire paper with hundreds of connections.

He said he wanted to do something big with his life, but he was just a kid and couldn’t make much of a difference. Then he looked at his drawing again and realized that maybe he could make a big difference after all because it just takes one person.

My kids and I thank you from the bottoms of our hearts. And one day (hopefully soon) we WILL pay it forward. Thank you!