Ripples of kindness can make big difference

A blessing of kindness and generosity surprised our family about a week and a half ago as our daughter, Mary, was getting ready to fly to Chevak to teach school. Mary actually left for school Aug. 12. This is the second year Mary and Falon Tardiff have taught in the Chevak School, which is about 20 miles inland from Hooper Bay. This year Mary is teaching fifth- and sixth-grade students.

Mary told Kathy that last year when her students left class at the end of the day they often asked for a “plastic,” a grocery bag, so they could carry their stuff home. Kathy and Mary were thinking of what they might get for Mary’s 46 students this year so they had something other than a “plastic” to carry their supplies from home to school and back. Because Kathy works at our local hospital, Mat-Su Regional Medical Center, Kathy asked her boss, Emily Stevens, if the hospital could donate some tote bags, which the hospital uses as promotional gifts.

Emily told Kathy to email her. Emily then passed on a challenge to hospital managers to respond personally, rather than institutionally. The result was that the managers, on their own, purchased 51 backpacks full of school supplies for Mary’s students. We were told by some of the managers how much fun they had shopping. We heard from others who wished they had been part of the process. Mary even received a large box of extra school supplies to use with her class.

What a gift!

What a difference an act of kindness and generosity can make in the lives of many people. The gift of time in shopping, the gift of the cost of the supplies, the even bigger gift of kindness and goodwill are blessings. Not only does this gift make Mary’s life as a teacher easier, but the students know that someone they don’t even know in Palmer cares about them. An act of goodwill sends out waves of blessings.

God’s directions to his people tell us in Matthew 22:37,39 that, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind,” and “you shall love your neighbor as yourself.”

What a blessing when people love others as they love themselves. That is what God has done for us in the sacrificial death of Jesus.

This week I have been at church meetings in Portland and Seattle. As I traveled I was struck that the lines and scanning of Transportation Security Administration in the airports are becoming more and more interesting. Think of the difference that acts of terrorism have made causing challenges for the traveling of everyone else. On the flip side, think of the difference for good that the gifts of backpacks and school supplies will make for a teacher, for 46 students, for a whole Alaska community!

Where are you making a difference for good in the lives of those around you? Where do you plan to share with others the love God has first given us? God can use your acts of kindness and good will in ways that bless others far beyond what you expect.

Jonathan Rockey is pastor of St. John Lutheran Church in Palmer. Contact him at jonrock53@mtaonline.net.

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