In the last blog I described a botched opportunity to do a random act of kindness for a needy lady, but God didn’t let me forget it. He repeatedly bothered my conscience till I knew I’d have to do something to make up for my poor choice.

The next morning a handful of us were seated at a restaurant having breakfast, so I planned to tell the group of my fail, and ask for input.

As I waited for the right moment, a stranger broke into our conversation, arriving at our table with a beautifully wrapped package. He walked up to Emerald and handed the gift to her as if he’d planned it for weeks. “Here you go, little girl. Merry Christmas!” Immediately afterwards, he hurried away.

Assuming it was the restaurant manager giving gifts to all young patrons, we questioned our waitress when she returned. “Did you see that?”

“Yes,” she said. “Interesting.”

“Is he part of the restaurant staff?”

“I’ve never seen him.”

Emerald opened her present (wrapped in paper decorated on both sides) to find a 9” X 12” book – Merry Christmas Charlie Brown. And then it hit me. God was demonstrating what he’d wanted me to do the day before, by allowing me to experience the warm feeling of being surprised with an unexpected gift. As we were saying, “Wow! Can you believe this?” God was saying, “That’s what I had in mind for the Walmart lady. Understand?”

And I did. But there was more.

As our eggs and pancakes arrived, I told my family the story of the Walmart lady, expressing sadness that I hadn’t responded to God’s prompt.

“Maybe you should respond now then,” Nelson said.

“How?”

“See that guy over there?” he said, pointing to a man eating alone across the room. “Why don’t you pay for his breakfast?”

When our waitress returned, I asked if she could put his meal on our bill without letting him know who paid. “No problem,” she said. “Glad to help.”

But God wasn’t finished. When our server brought the bill she said, “Your breakfast will be 25% off this morning. That couple over there gave me a coupon to apply to your meal.” It was Ann, a local bank teller, having breakfast with her husband.

The Lord was creatively driving home his point about giving to others without counting the cost. But he wasn’t done even yet.

When I looked at the bill and its 25% discount, the extra meal we bought totaled less than the discount we received. So even after our gift of a free breakfast, we were going to leave the restaurant with a gain. The only thing to do was give it away– and we joyfully left a 50% tip for our waitress.

But God had one final comment to make. Our food plus tax added up to $46.10 – a familiar number. “Hey,” I said. “Isn’t that an important Bible reference?”

“You’re probably thinking of Psalm 46:10,” Nelson said. “ ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ ”