God Bless The Candy

God works in such cool and awesome ways. Sunday I was offering to "allow" people to dump their left over halloween candy on me if they had a problem getting rid of it. I didn't really expect anybody to do so. We had zero "trick-or-treaters" at our house this year. Or maybe we have 300. I have no way of knowing. We were at church. But if some came and found no answer at my door (or perhaps they simply ran after reading my "Go Away!" welcome mat) at least they didn't egg my house! Any way the challenge was out there. Got candy? Dump it here!

Enter Peggy.

Peggy came into our church sanctuary last night following evening bible study and promptly hit me with a HUGE zip lock back of left over candy. And this was quality stuff! There was actually real chocolate in that bag! She seemed quite pleased with herself. All I could think of was how that candy was going to look under my belt. To paraphrase an old friend of mine, I might as well just tape it to my tummy.

This morning came and I stopped into a local quick mart for a hit of caffeine. On most mornings a young mom is behind the cash register. She is single and I would expect that money is rather tight for her. I paid for my liquid habit, leaned against the counter and engaged in a few moments of run-of-the-mill small talk. It seems she had to work all day and then was heading to a halloween party with her months old son. They were both going to be dressing up as devils. Yuk. But okay. I mean, the primary purpose of my engaging this young woman in conversations over the past months has been with the intent of "relationship building." I am doing my best to get to know her and allow her to get to know me casually. My prayer ... which I pray frequently ... is that sooner or later God is going to nudge my heart and give me the "go ahead" to share my faith in Christ with her. For now I'm just trying to win the right to be heard. At Towerview we call it "Walking Across The Room."

As we were wrapping up the two minute long chat she mentioned that she was suppose to bring goodies to the party but really didn't know what she was going to do about that. She was out of candy. And since she was working all day, making something was out of the question.

Hmmmm. I told her to hang tight and I'd be right back. I think you know where I was going.

I drove the short mile to my office, grabbed the mega-bag of "Peggy Poisen" off of my desk and headed back out the door. When I walked back in to the quick mart I dropped the bag on the counter and said, "Problem solved." She looked at it, a startled expression on her face. "What is this for?" she asked. I told her it was hers to take to tonights party. And then she asked the key question. "Why would you do this?" I just smiled. "Because you need it. And I certainly don't!" And I was back out the door.

No sharing of scripture. No mention of Jesus. No invitation to church. Yet. (She's already asked what I do for a living and when I told her she looked like I'd strangled her pet cat.) But it occurs to me that maybe a simple gift of candy, a gift that cost me nothing but a few spare minutes, will help solidify the fact in her mind that I really don't want anything from her. I'm not just being a creepy old guy. I have no agenda other than friendship.

But I'm clearly aware ... and become more aware every day ... that friends don't let friends enter eternity without Jesus.

God bless the candy. Literally, please.

Stupid Picture Chronicles #51

All I can assume is that some church is now serving crepes instead of communion wafers.