Hidden Treasures

I ran into an old art student at the grocery store. She is in college now. But more interestingly, she is a top contender for the Olympics shooting event. She wins most of her competitions, and is clearly in the Olympic committee's crosshairs, so to speak. She was also one of the very best artists I ever taught. She promised me she would let me know if she made the Olympics, though she says the shooting event never airs, and is deadly dull to watch.
Who would have known, I thought, as I went on with my shopping. I might have had a future Olympian in my art class.... So many wondrous nuggets we miss nestled in the humdrum dailiness of life.....

Later, I went on a walk. I saw a discarded Christmas tree on the curb. Honeybun stopped, anxious to smell all the dog messages left on the tree, when I noticed an ornament the owners had missed. It was a little handmade ornament, looked like a little tree in a red base. I started to walk on. Then I wondered if perhaps it was special to them, and next Christmas, when they opened their ornament box, and started trimming the tree, would they be sad to see the little ornament had disappeared? Perhaps it was very special, a little nugget of delight that would be forever lost to them. I walked back, removed the ornament and put it in their mailbox.

Smiling, I moved on. I thought of my cousin, who is still continually doing hidden and generous things for the people of Sandy Hook, in her beloved little village of Newtown. So many hidden treasures that may be found, hidden talents, hidden acts of kindness, God's invisible hand made visible by the love of His people. That little ornament that was headed to the garbage dump rescued and saved....I don't know. It just filled me with hope.

Isaiah 45:3 (NIV)
I will give you hidden treasures, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name.


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