August 4, 2024 Devo

I read a wonderful blog today by a woman whose life was forever touched by a single good deed. She said when she was ten years old that she and her mother were going through a coffee shop drive-through. After placing their order, they began to slowly pull up toward the window to pay. To her mom’s horror, she realized she had forgotten her debit card. When they got to the window, her mom apologized profusely and told the young person at the window she didn’t have her card, so she would have to cancel her order. The worker told her not to worry because the car that was in front of her in line already paid for her order. The daughter and her mother were blown away.
They quickly caught up with the driver who had paid for them, and the mother was able to get them to stop so she could thank them. That turned into a 15-minute conversation about generosity and kindness. The driver simply said, “Don’t pay it back, pay it forward.” That was the first time the young girl had heard of that concept. After going home, the mother and daughter talked about their experience and began to ask how they could indeed “pay it forward.” Having just recently heard about a mission-work in Jamaica, they decided that each year they would pack a box with good, used clothes that the daughter could no longer wear, along with some toys and other items. The mother and daughter have continued the tradition every year since that 2014 act of kindness done to them. One good deed produced ten years of good deeds and counting.
Jesus said that our good deeds reflect the goodness of our Heavenly Father. Since He has done so much for us and so richly blessed our lives in every way, how could we not pay it forward as well? God “paid our bill” when we couldn’t pay it, right? Then let’s look every day for simple and meaningful ways to keep that goodness of God flowing. Maybe, like with the young lady who wrote the blog, one of our good deeds won’t end with just one or two people being blessed. Perhaps our good deed will spark a chain reaction of events that will lead to an avalanche of blessings. Somehow, I think that’s what Jesus had in mind. That’s God’s Word for you today.