Saying “Thank You” to the God Who Made Families
When I was growing up, my mother, like so many other mothers, shopped at department stores. Our favorites were Cain-Sloan, Harvey’s, and Castner-Knott, all in downtown Nashville. I bought my first and probably my only Beatles record in the music department at Harvey’s. Mother bought the fur for my blue velvet Christmas dress in the fabric department. She bought my first whole Bible in the book department.
We shopped in the Cain-Sloan bargain basement for the few clothes Mother didn’t sew for me. One of the fingernails on my right hand has leaned just a little to the left since the day I smashed it in one of Cain-Sloan’s big entrance doors. I remember being whisked away to the store nurse for first aid. A childhood delight was watching the wonderland of mechanical toys in the display window at Christmastime.
This year Ray and I have done all of our Christmas shopping three ways: ordering online, picking up at stores in Cookeville, and ordering things for a local gift shop to deliver to our house. I miss my annual trip to nearby Livingston to enjoy a nostalgic shopping outing on its town square. Ray and I have driven through many dead or dying downtowns, but Livingston is doing something right. Their downtown is thriving.
Several years ago, on my annual Livingston outing, I visited its tiny downtown department store. How in the world do you keep an old-fashioned department store open on the square of a town of 4,000 people? I have talked to the owner about that before. It’s a labor of love. Her parents owned it before her and she works hard to keep it going. She’s doing a good job.
On that particular day, a middle-aged man was in the store. While I shopped, he chatted on and on with the 20-something woman working as the store’s only clerk. They talked about the wonderful Thanksgiving celebration they had both attended the day before and about the games they had played.
While I pondered my purchases, the conversation continued. Occasionally they made a comment to me, and from time to time I asked the clerk a question. I began to wonder why this middle-aged gentleman was hanging around so long with this young woman.
When I was ready to stand at the counter, I came face-to-face with the middle-aged man. He asked if I was purchasing for a grandchild. I answered yes and he told me about his grandchildren. We grandparents do that. He told me about his children, too. That’s when I found out why he, a middle-aged man, was hanging around the young woman. He was her daddy. I thought how special it was for her daddy to visit her at work and to sit there on and on, keeping her company.
What a kind gentleman he was. He told me how much he liked my purse and how much he liked its color. He said that purchases I made reminded him of a garment his wife had when they first got married. He talked about how much he liked it.
He told me about meeting his wife when he was 23 years old. He said, “I had just come back to the Lord.” He had told God that he was ready to have a family and that he wanted Him to send the right girl. Two weeks later the kind gentleman met his future wife.
When I finished making my purchase, the clerk asked if I would like my purchases gift wrapped. When she assured me that it was free, I said, “Sure,” and that I would come back later to get them.
By the time I finished at the antique stores, crowds had gathered. People were drinking cider and getting free bags of popcorn. Livingston had been transformed for the first night of their annual Christmas in the Country celebration. When I walked into the department store, the clerk was getting off work and the owner was there. I retrieved my packages and said thank you to the owner for the homemade cookie she handed me.
A daddy keeping a daughter company at work . . . A daughter keeping her daddy’s business alive . . . These are some of the ways we say, “Thank you,” to the God Who made families.
Just as a father has compassion on his children,
So the Lord has compassion on those who fear Him.
Psalm 103:13