Being far from home when the holidays roll around can be pretty emotional. One year in particular, we were all feeling nostalgic, lonely, and pretty low on the excitement scale, until we received a care package full of home-baked goodies. That is not the best part, though.

Let me take you back, over a decade ago, to when my second child was born. As a baby, she became really attached to our couch throw—the style that usually has a sports logo or a poem about being a grandmother. Mine had little hearts and ducks, a gift from a friend who earned it selling Avon. My daughter preferred to sleep with her “keebie” every night for the next 14 years. It was one of the very few non-clothing, non-homeschooling items to make the move to the mission field.

Over the years, I had stitched and re-stitched the “keebie” more times than I can count, adding a backing and a satin border, but no amount of stitching would make those strings hold on once they began to unravel.

The summer she was 12, my daughter came to me almost in tears, pointing out bigger and bigger holes in the “keebie.” She admitted it was time to put it in a safe place so that it would not be totally destroyed, but she was unsure she could sleep without it.

Enter eBay. I figured you can find ANYTHING on eBay, right? Did I mention that this was a limited-edition blanket from Avon?

I started praying, because this was going to be like finding a needle in a haystack. I looked everywhere, once eBay let me down. I sent emails to anyone I could think of. I searched through online Avon catalogs and collection houses. Desperation set in, and it seemed hopeless to find this out-of-circulation blanket.

I assured my daughter I would keep repairing it, but that she might need to make a decision soon about trying to get used to either sleeping without the “keebie” or trying a towel in its place. As you might imagine, she was not thrilled with either idea.

On December 23, something told me we should make an unscheduled trip to the post office, though it was a long way from where we lived. We found that my old Avon-selling friend had mailed us a box full of her vacuum-sealed Christmas baking. What did she use to pad the neatly-packed bread and cookies and peanut butter balls? Yep, you guessed it—a “keebie” exactly like the one she had given me 15 years before. She just happened to have an extra in her closet!

So that Christmas, my teen-aged “baby girl” got the gift of a lifetime, and the whole family snacked on homemade baked goods that made us feel closer to the traditions of home.

How good to know that God is concerned with the little things, which make a such a big difference in daily life!

 

© 2012 Women of the Harvest.

Question to Consider: How have you seen God’s concern for you in “little” things?