Chapter 28 - Three Easter Baskets

“Give and it shall be given unto you;…”

—Luke 6:38

In 1985 we had to return to the United States to

take a medical furlough. My wife had contracted
malaria and was having difficulty overcoming the
after effects, since she was expecting our fourth and
last child. It was Easter time and during this time of
year, we enjoyed buying Easter baskets for our children.
Having just enough money for our purchases,
we planned to go out after the service at church on
Easter Sunday in order to buy the baskets.
    Excited about the special event, we piled into the
station wagon that night and headed for our home
church in Winston-Salem. Before church I chatted
for a few minutes with a preacher friend and his
wife. During the sermon, the Lord spoke to my heart
about giving our Easter basket money to my friend.
Somewhat dismayed, I thought to myself, This
cannot be right, because we have no extra money
to give. All we have is our Easter basket money.
But during the sermon and invitation, the Lord kept
speaking to my heart, and I kept resisting.
    Lord, this is all the money we have, and besides,
I am sure they do not really need our money.
    Well, guess what? The Lord won, and after the
service, I walked over to my friend and his wife and
said, “The Lord spoke to my heart about giving you
this money.” I handed them the money, and they
were all smiles. They thanked me graciously and
then, to my amazement, said that they really needed
this money because they had no food at home and
their baby needed milk. Knowing this made me feel
much better about giving away my children’s Easter
basket money.
    But now I had to tell my wife and children what I
had done. I wondered what their reaction would be.
As to be expected, they were a little sad, but they
were also happy that I had obeyed the Lord.
    We went home and were soon in bed. Around
eleven o’clock, I heard a knock at the door. “Who
could that be at this time of night?” I wondered
aloud to Linda. I got dressed, went to the door, and
much to my amazement, a woman from the church
was standing in the doorway and asking to come in.
I said that if she would wait a few minutes, I would
get the entire family up and we would be right out.
    Everybody got up, dressed, and went into the
living room. Unknown to me, the woman at the
door was not alone, but accompanied by her husband
and ten more people. As they all filed into our
living room, I thought, What in the world are all
these people doing here this late at night?
    Has something bad happened to somebody? Has
someone died? My mind was reeling with all kinds
of negative thoughts.
    The woman then spoke up and said that the Lord
had laid it upon their hearts to buy each of our three
children an Easter basket. My mind was quickly put
at ease. I looked at our children; and they were all
smiles. Then three of the people in the group pulled
out from behind their backs the biggest Easter baskets
I have ever seen and handed one to each of our
children. But that was not all. They also said that the
Lord had impressed upon their hearts to give us a
love offering, and they extended an envelope toward
us. We thanked them, and they left the house. And
when we looked in the envelope, it was a lot more
money than what we had given to our friend and his
wife that night at church. Isn’t our God amazingly
wonderful?

(Copyright by Jay B Ayers)