Christian Living
Blue Gumballs
4Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart. – Psalm 37:4 (AMP)
I would rather know that someone spent five dollars trying to get me a blue gumball out of the machine, because they knew it was my favorite, rather than they hand me a one hundred dollar bill.
This is something that I have said for years and even try to live my life by. I have gone so far as to start writing a book, only to have the computer crash (losing my entire first chapter) entitled, The Blue Gumball Theory. Maybe I wasn’t supposed to write it in the first place.
What is it? It is based on living your life and giving yourself in a way to others that says, I know you and care enough to show you that you count. It’s not about giving and getting things, but about giving and gaining moments and memories. It is about how God is with each of us.
It is about an intimacy with people and treasuring them as the unique individual that God created them to be. It is about respecting and embracing the differences in others and making an effort to show them that they are valuable to you. This is reflective to others of the Father’s love for us.
In July of 2000, my husband and I took our three boys, 7, 5, and 2 ½ to New York City. We had tickets to the “Subway Series” between the Mets and Yankees. He is a Mets fan and I have been a Yankees fan as long as I can remember. I’ll never forget the uproar over this event. It was only heightened by Roger Clemens nailing Mike Piazza with the ball. But this was not the highlight of our trip.
I had been trying to talk David into having another baby, I really wanted a girl. Of course, lugging three boys under ten throughout NYC was not the best time to approach it. But I have never been one of those people who have really taken timing into account. Life’s too short.
On the elevator ride back to our room, there was a male member of the hotel staff with us. He had heard none of our conversations. He turned and looked at us and said, “Next year at this time you will have your daughter and she will be the crowning jewel in your family”. I am quite sure I looked foolish as I picked my jaw up off of the floor. But this began our journey to adopt.
We discussed so many options and prayed over agencies before we made an appointment. I wanted to adopt from China and David wanted to adopt from Russia. I was not old enough to adopt from China at the time. At that point they had a minimum age requirement of thirty. So as we walked into the agency for the first time it was looking more like Russia was where we were headed.
One of the first questions they ask is what country you are interested in. Of course I had to pour out my plight about China/Russia. I cannot appropriately relay the ecstatic emotion I felt when the woman spoke. There apparently was a need for adoption in Kazakhstan. This was a country that was a part of the former USSR and the children had Asian features. Although separated only by a mountain range, these children were neither considered Chinese nor Russian. Cha-ching….Blue gumball moment!
God in His infinite greatness had done something neither of us could ever imagine. He took the desires of both of our hearts, so seemingly different, and wrapped them into one beautiful package.
Mathea (Gift of God) Grace Wells would be part of our family before July 2001.
I don’t have enough time or room to mention all of my Blue Gumball treasures. It’s a jar of three gumballs I received one Christmas. It’s the jelly jar of handwritten, “Reasons I Love You”, papers my husband gave me as a gift. It’s the blue M&M gumball machine my mother gave to me filled with all of the blue peanut M&M’s she picked out of the bag.
It’s the tiny Blue Gumball that was carefully wrapped and packaged inside of a ring box at Christmas. It is the mushy brownies my now 12 year old daughter made and brought to us with a proud grin on her face. It’s the hug of my 19 year old son and the sound of his I love you Mom. It’s the laughter of my 17 year old as he tells another joke. It is the “sweet dreams” I say to my fourteen year old and the “Butter beans” he echoes back in answer each night before bed.
It’s the treasure and pleasure of seeing someone’s face light up simply because you smiled at them. It’s the handmade card, or remembrance and recognition of a date that is special to them.
It is the putting of your heart into someone else instead of just your pockets.
It is an easy thing to say, “I Love You”. It is something else entirely to show it.
You can never lose in delighting yourself in the Lord. He knows you better than anyone. Try as you may, most of the time you could not even imagine the Blue Gumball moments He has for you.
The measure of life is not about the things we accumulate…it is about the moments…in my case, Blue Gumball Moments.
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