Blessing Rock

About a month ago, one of my daughters and her friend placed Blessing Rocks that they had painted with words like Love, Joy, and Hope in a few neighbors' mailboxes.  It was a tiny gesture that they hoped would brighten someone's day.  We never heard anything or knew their reactions...until yesterday.

Yesterday, a note was left on our neighborhood networking site.  This is what it said,
"I want to thank whoever it was that put the small blue-painted rock in our mailbox with the word JOY on it.  You have no idea what a blessing it was for me the day I found it.  I was just coming back from an MRI and was still very scared about what the test would show.  I felt that God had sent me a visible sign of His love and support through the thoughtful hands of an earthly angel.  My diagnosis was life changing, but I already felt the love and hope and joy supporting me in so many ways.  The message on the rock has helped me experience more fully the joy in many of the lighter moments over the past few weeks:  the kindness of nurses, the unexpected visit from co-workers, flowers from far away, messages of love and support from students.  There have been some really heavy, hard moments too, but in them were friends and loved ones who cared for me, physically, emotionally and spiritually, friends who sat and held me through even harder news.  That joy might have been harder, even impossible, to see and feel without the small blue Joy blessing that went with me to the hospital and stays close with me now.  So whoever you are, thank you from the bottom of my heart.  You have helped me through one of the hardest times of my life with your blessing rock.  May God bless you and yours now and always." 

What an amazing God watches over us!  We never know how He will use us.  To take such a tiny, simple thing and turn it into a comfort and hope for a hurting soul brings me to my knees.  I'm thankful for this reminder to me and to my children on how our actions, big or small, reach out and touch others in ways we may never know.  May He open our eyes to seize the moments we can let our lights shine and share his Joy.