Dresses

There are so many people I want to tell this story to, that I have been running around the last couple of days, telling as many as I can but feeling like it’s not enough. I want to tell you something about my God, and what He did recently to step into the lives of some people I know, and more surprisingly, some people I don’t know, but who He wanted to bless! He is so amazing and so loving and kind, and I believe He wants everyone who will listen to hear it. If this finds its way to you, then I trust God wants to use it to show you something about Himself today.

It was the morning of December 18th, and I finally had the green light bank-account-wise, to finish up the Christmas shopping for our family. It was a crisp sunny day, the kids were in school, and I was feeling free and excited to get to my day. But as I sipped my coffee, and wrote my to-do list, I couldn’t shake a thought that I had woken up thinking about: some little girls’ Christmas dresses, sitting in a closet, that I’d been intending to take to a consignment shop. Now, it was so close to Christmas, I didn’t want them sitting around my house when someone could use them. “Lord,” I prayed, “Do you want to do something with these dresses?” I asked, which in my recent experience, had become a delightfully dangerous question. (More on that, to come.) I was struck with the idea to call the local food bank, to see if they wanted to offer them to customers. I figured that people going there would not be able to spend extra money on a fancy dress, and some little girls might be delighted to have one. “We don’t normally take them, but yes, go ahead and bring them over.” Wow, I had half-expected a “No,” but okay!

So, I began to gather the dresses. I hung them all up on a rack, five of them. I started to pray over each dress, over each girl who would receive one, and her family, that God would bless and delight these children. Then, I asked Him, “Lord, dresses are great, but what do You want to say to these girls and their families? It is your word they need most—it is your word that has the power to change lives.”

I decided to write out a Christmas card to leave on each dress. I thought of the verses from Zephaniah 3:14 & 17, “Sing, O Daughter of Zion; shout aloud, O Israel! Be glad and rejoice with all your heart, O Daughter of Jerusalem! The Lord your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing.” Beautiful. Lord, these verses keep coming to my mind to put with these dresses; I’ll use these verses, okay?

As I began to fill out the cards, I wondered, was this from God? Or was this just my idea? Lord, are You with me in this? I have no idea. I figured, either way, I would do it- it couldn’t hurt.  And I started to feel that little tremble inside, that rush of being completely unsure of what I was doing, but sensing it was right, and just going with it.  I noticed the time, and felt like I had to rush. I felt like I should be there when the food bank opened, which was in about 20 minutes. My phone rang. It was my insurance adjuster of all people, who called to tell me he suddenly had time available to come to my house that day to look at storm damage. He asked if he could come now instead of the next day, as scheduled. Ugh…I’m busy and I don’t have time for this!  “No, thanks,” I quipped. “I have a lot going on today; tomorrow would still be better,” I told him. He said, “Well, I’ll just send someone now anyway, to look at the outside of the house, and I’ll still be there tomorrow to look at the inside.”  Okay, that’s weird and kind of pushy. Lord, are you trying to clear me out of here? I have been feeling like I need to be at the food bank when it opens, I reasoned.

I gathered up my blank Christmas cards and popped quickly into my pantry to look for some food to bring, but I only had about five random cans of food left and they were things like coconut milk, not real food. I couldn’t believe it. And I was out of time, if I was going to manage to avoid the insurance guy, and get to the food bank when it opened, so I left.

On my way in the car, I started to get nervous. Oh my gosh. What am I doing? I am bringing Christmas dresses to a food bank.  “Lord, does anyone even want Christmas dresses? And, I have no food! I’m going to a food bank, right before Christmas, with no food!” (In case you are thinking, “Yeah, that is stupid” and I’m not saying you’re wrong, you should know before you think I’m a big jerk, that I do make a fairly frequent habit of bringing actual food to the food bank.)  But, as I said, I was out of food and by this point of this trip, I was starting to freak out. This seemed crazier with each mile closer that I got. As I drove, I decided on a back-up plan. I will just tell the ladies at the pantry that I will be there on December 26th, to clear any leftover dresses out of their way. “Lord,” I say out loud in my car, ” I don’t really know if you’re with me in this, or if this is just my idea, but I’m going. And I know I don’t always get to see all the cool stuff You do, but it is so fun when I get to, so if I could, I would love to! Lord, if there are any people there who believe in You, I pray You would let us connect, and that you would get these dresses into their hands also, and doubly bless these sisters in the faith.”

I pull into the parking lot, and I see a lady in a tan jacket waiting for the pantry to open, and I know in my heart she needs a dress. I get the cards out and start writing as fast as I can. I look up again, and the tan-jacket lady is gone, and I see a stylish lady in a hat and cute boots open the door and walk into the pantry. I make a mental note to step up my fashion & pull myself together a bit more, and quickly, I finish all five cards, gather them and the dresses, and step out of my car. And, at that very moment, the lady in the hat is walking by me, and she looks at me and smiles. “Hi,” I call out smiling, as I awkwardly lift the dresses out, and sheepishly holding up my pile, I say “Do you, by any chance, need a dress?”  To my surprise, she came over to me right away, smiling, “Oh, they’re so pretty! I have a granddaughter that I’m keeping, and I don’t have anything for her.”

“Well, then, these are for you!” Someone actually wants a dress!  “I believe God wants to bless you,” I tell her. “How old is your granddaughter?”   “Oh, she’s 8, and she loves to sing. Mostly church songs, but a little R&B too,” she laughs, “But mostly church songs,” she smiled. And she looked through and picked two dresses. “I think these will be perfect for her, thank you.” “You are so welcome, and Merry Christmas,” I smiled, feeling amazed and glad that someone wanted them, and bolstered in the idea to bring the dresses, I handed her a Christmas card.

As I neared the pantry, I saw another lady walking out of the pantry with a big cart of things, and I said abruptly, “Hi, do you need a dress?” Yikes, my approach could use some work. She looked at me without any expression and said, “Well, I have a granddaughter who desperately needs a coat, but I guess I could take a dress.” All I wanted in that moment was a coat, in the right size, to give to this woman. In fact, it had occurred to me to find some of the kids’ outgrown coats at home, but I couldn’t dig them out of the attic that morning. I looked at my feet, then back at her.  “I’m sorry, I don’t have a coat, but I do have a dress. How old is your granddaughter?” “She’s 5.” And, there in the front of my pile was a black long-sleeved size 5 velvet dress. “This one’s a 5,” I say, “Could this work for her?”  “Thank you, I guess that one will be about perfect,” she said in a flat tone. I handed her a card and wished her a Merry Christmas, and turned to head into the pantry, with the remaining two dresses.

Suddenly, the first  lady I’d met, the one in the hat called to me, “Wait! Wait!” She called as she ran toward me to catch me before I went into the food bank. “Wait,” she said as she caught her breath and stood in front of me. “I have to tell you something, and you’re not going to believe it.” Our eyes locked on each other, as I waited for her to tell me what was happening.

“What is it?” I worried.

“My son’s name is Zion,” she said it slowly and pointedly to let it sink in. And I just stared at her. “Wow,” I said. “Yeah,” she acknowledged. I realized that was the name in the verse I used on the Christmas card. Sing, O Daughter of Zion.

“Wow,” I said again. “That is from the Lord. Amen!”  She looked at me and smiled, and returned, “A-men” punctuated with a nod.  And, she walked back into the pantry. I wish I could bottle up that feeling of sisterhood that I felt in that moment, with that stranger.

But, really, I didn’t process the significance of all that had just happened, until I was sitting at a traffic light, leaving. Then, it all suddenly hit me like a train, and I exclaimed out loud in my car, “Whoa! Wait a minute! Did you just do that? Oh, Lord, did you just write a letter to a poor little girl, and did you just call her by name? And, because she likes to sing, did you just say to her, ‘Sing, O Daughter of Zion…’ and tell her how much you love her and delight in her? Did you just have me arrive at the food bank, at the very moment that this particular grandmother would walk by my car, and have me give dresses and a card for her to give to the literal Daughter of Zion?!”

I don’t know how many Zion‘s you know, but I’ve never met any. Who does that but God?

And so, I drove around feeling stupefied.  I called my mom to tell her, and decided I would head home since I was too dumbfounded to accomplish much, but as I drove by my house, there was the insurance guy on my roof. I really didn’t feel like talking to him about roof damage when I was still so pumped up from my morning, so I headed to Target.  I figured I’d do a little Christmas shopping.  In the Starbucks line at Target, I saw an acquaintance I hadn’t seen in 4 years, when our sons were in 3 year old preschool class together. She started talking about donating lots of things lately, and though I’d never had more than a 10 minute conversation with her, I thought, “Lord, should I tell her this story?” So, I asked her, “Jackie, do you have a minute to sit and have a cup of coffee and hear a cool story?”

Surprisingly, she said in her charmingly heavy New York accent, “Sure, I’ll have a cup of coffee,” and we sat down together, and I told her what had just happened at the food bank. And she got tears in her eyes. She told me some of what was going on for her, and talked about feeling the pressure of materialism, and how she used to feel so proud in her expensive clothes, and she just gave all of them away. Then, she looked down at the table and said, “Ali, do you know I haven’t left my house in two days? I have been crying for two days, from guilt and shame.” She explained how she had looked into becoming a foster parent, desiring to provide a warm bed and love and meals, but she couldn’t make all the state’s demands for meetings hours away, work with her family. She said, “Your story just really encouraged me.” I said, “Jackie, I think you’re part of it,” and I pulled out my phone, and looked up Zephaniah 3, because I remembered a part I had seen when writing the verses for the Christmas cards, that said something like, “you will no longer be ashamed.” So I skimmed until I found it, and I handed her my phone and said, “I don’t know, but I think maybe this is for you.” And she took it, read it, and started crying, so I asked her, “Was that for you?” And she said, “Yes, that was for me. How did you know to give the girls those verses and me these?” “Jackie, this is from the Lord. He wants to encourage you.” She said with a smile, “And, you’re telling me you don’t know why you came to Target just now?” “Well, there was this guy on my roof,” I countered, with a smile. And she laughed, and she said, “You know why I came here? Chapstick. Now, I came all the way from the other side of town, and I passed a CVS and a Rite-Aid, and I came here for Chapstick, and what? A $4 cup of coffee? Nuh-uh. I think I came here to see you.”

We left each other, and I pushed a cart around Target, trying to shop while my mind raced, reliving what I just got to see God do. Then, I headed home, and as I pulled in my neighborhood, I thought, I’ll pop into my neighbor Pam’s driveway, and see if she wants to hear this cool story. So, she invited me in, and I told her about everything. She was tearful and crying. And she said, “Ali, I was trying to decorate the tree earlier, and I was just praying for God to help me, because I’m just feeling so down, and I can’t get in the Christmas spirit. And your story really helps me remember what it is all about.” Pam had spent the Fall taking care of her mother-in-law, who was dying of cancer, and who had just passed away about a month before. I looked at her, and said, “Pam, I think you’re part of this story, because there is a section of verses I remember seeing, when I was looking for Jackie’s, that I think might be for you.” And I looked up Zephaniah 3 on my phone again, found the part that started, “Cheer up, O Zion,” and I handed her my phone. When she was done reading, I asked her, “Was that for you?” And she tearfully nodded that it was.

On my way home, I called my friend Rosa. Now, Rosa had called when I was talking with Jackie, and again when I was talking with Pam, so when I finally called her back I said, “Sorry I couldn’t take your calls earlier, but I think He must have wanted you to hear the whole story!”  I told her all of it, and said, “You should probably go read Zephaniah 3!”

Rosa explained that her son Ben was going to be singing a solo in school, and was nervous. The next day, she called me again to tell me that last night she read Zephaniah 3:17 to Ben, in her version that said, “His love will calm all of your fears.” And she gathered Ben, and with him called a prayer ministry, and she said, “Guess what they prayed for us? Zephaniah 3:17!” The whole day, started and ended with that verse. And here, I thought maybe picking that verse to write on the Christmas cards for the little girls was just my idea.

Wow. What can I even say? I am so blown away by her news. I felt like what God was saying to me, was, “You prayed and acknowledged that it is my word that will go forth with power? Well, I know! But, let me show you!” And, He proceeded to take me around to watch Him delight a family, encourage and take away one’s shame, comfort one grieving, and quiet a little boy’s fears. All in one day, with one passage of scripture.

So, in the midst of the terrible, and the devastating, and the evil that we cannot explain, there is our God, who does, in fact, care about our details. He cares so much, He gave us Jesus, so we can know Him, and fellowship with Him. And we can be assured that Jesus will bring justice one day and He will make all our wrongs right. And He wants to get us safely to Him—all of us. And, still, in the meantime, in the midst of this fallen world, He shows us who He is again and again. He says the whole Earth is filled with His glory. Believers, let’s ask Him to see it. Let’s be willing to step out in obedience when we feel His prompting. Let’s not dismiss the quiet urges to act on something that we think maybe He is asking us to do.* Let’s say, “Okay, Lord, but please go with me.” Let’s say, “Lord, what do You want to do with this?”

That day, I felt like the little boy in the Bible story, who offered Jesus his lunch. “Well, I have this loaf and two fishes…do you want to use these?” And, I just got to watch how the smallest of my offerings was amazingly multiplied in his hands.

*Note: By following God’s prompting and quiet urges to act, I only mean in things that would line up with what the Bible teaches us to do, acting in kindness in order to help others. In other words, I do not mean that crazy people should follow their own crazy ideas in any way that would oppose the Bible’s command to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Do I even need to say that? But, just so it’s clear, I did.