Unexpected Gifts

I woke up this morning complaining about not having any clothes to wear to church since we are abstaining from shopping for a while.  And since I don’t have foreknowledge I had no idea what was to come of our morning to put things into perspective for me.  I was reminded of how awesome it is to live a life with a God who does have foreknowledge.  How neat to wake up to a new day, every day, and know that God has great plans for our lives.  We don’t know what each day will bring, but He does something for us every day and it is exciting to just wait and see what is to come.

We started getting ready this morning and Dan suggested that we go to breakfast before church.  So we packed up the kids and got in the car.  I asked Dan where he was taking us for breakfast and he said, “I’m not sure yet, but I have been told that the bowling alley has good food.”  What???  The bowling alley in Porterville is not my idea of a good place to eat.  So we drove around the town for a little while trying to find the place.  We turned down a side street and happened to come upon what looked like a very worn down, empty parking lot and bowling alley.  But at the corner of the bowling alley was a tiny café.  We drove in, parked, and sat there for a while deciding if we wanted to go in or not.  It looked risky.  But we saw some nice cars in the parking lot, a Hummer and a Mustang, so we figured it couldn’t be too bad.  We took the plunge and went in. 

What seemed like a crummy place turned out to be a sweet little diner with very nice people.  We sat down and chatted with two regulars, Max and Victor.  They were older men who took an interest in our family and talked with us the whole time.  We didn’t pay much attention to our waitress, although she seemed nice.  She offered good service and checked on us periodically to see if our meal was okay.  The food was excellent and the girls ate everything on their plates.  As we were finishing our meal, the waitress approached us and asked if we were Christians.  She said that our kids were so well behaved and wondered what church we attended.  We told her where we were going and she wanted us to know that the work we are doing with our kids goes noticed.  She said that she has worked with the public, in many settings, for a very long time and she can tell a lot about families based upon the kids’ behaviors.  We were grateful for her comments.  A little time passed and we were ready to leave so I sent Mya up to the counter with our Visa card to pay.  At this point we hadn’t gotten our bill yet but we needed to leave to get to church on time.  Mya went up to the counter and asked to pay and the waitress shook her head and told her to return to her seat and that she didn’t need our money.  I saw this happening from a distance and couldn’t believe what was going on.  I caught the waitress’ attention and told her we could pay for our meal.  She came over and told us that the meal was on her.  She said that she can see Jesus in our family and she wanted to reward us for that.  We looked at each other and shared some tears.  Then I looked at Dan, told him what was happening, and he teared up too.  I just couldn’t believe the moment that we were having.  I gave the waitress a hug and thanked her for being so generous.  We told her we would be back again soon and she gave us a warm smile as we walked out the door.  It turns out the waitress is the owner of the restaurant.