By BRUCE GREEN
Teaching Minister at 10th Street Church of Christ
in Opelika
It was two days before Christmas last year and one of our friends was down with Covid. She is a schoolteacher, she and her husband have a little girl and of course she had to remain isolated from both of them. It was a real bummer, but it was just one of those new realities we were all going through in some way and there wasn’t anything you could do about it.
Or maybe there was.
I talked to her husband to get an update on her and how they were making it. I asked if there was anything we could do and he threw out, “Not unless you know where I could get some little Debbie Christmas Cakes. She really likes those, and I can’t find them anywhere.”
Even though Little Debbie and her band of tempting treats hadn’t been on my radar in years, I thought I would give it a try. I asked him where he had looked and he mentioned the usual places. Then I thought of a place he hadn’t mentioned. If you could find them anywhere, they would be there.
I stopped at this store, went in, and found where the Little Debbie items were on display. And it just so happened that there were two distributors re-stocking the shelves. I told them what I was looking for and they laughed and said something to the effect of, “Yeah, you and everyone else.” I figured I had nothing to lose, so I told them the story of the Covid-stricken, school teaching, young mother and one of them looked at me and said, “C’mon, let’s go out and see if we have anything in the truck.”
As we walked toward the truck, he told me he didn’t know if there would be anything in there or not. They were such a hot item that they got rid of them as soon as they got them. I told him I understood and thanked him for taking time out to check it out. I appreciated how busy they were this time of year and the favor he was doing me.
When we got to the truck, he handed me a plastic bag and said, “Hold this open.” He rummaged around and before long produced a box of — Little Debbie Christmas Cakes! He plopped them in the bag. I was ecstatic! “Thank you so much! I think this is really going to lift her spirits,” I said. “Hold on,” he said, “Let’s see if we have any more.”
He did.
Another box was dropped into the bag. And then another, and another. When he was done, I had five boxes of Little Debbie Christmas Cakes for our friend. I had started out thinking if I could find one it would be nothing short of a spectacular success and now, I had five. I was overwhelmed and thanked him over and over again.
My friend met us outside his house. We had brought a meal for them. I told him I didn’t get a box of Little Debbie Christmas Cakes. He was understanding and said he hadn’t expected me to find any.
Then I told him I got five boxes and he looked at me like I was crazy.
I produced the bag and told him the story.
I never got the name of the man who gave me the five boxes of Little Debbie Christmas Cakes. I should have, but I was too carried away by the moment. Anyway, I seriously doubt that he follows my site or reads my column in The Observer, but in the small chance he does — or someone who knows him does, he needs to know that he absolutely made someone’s day by what he did. And as long as I’m alive, I’ll be telling the story of the Little Debbie Christmas. For as Jesus came into this world to teach and show us, “It is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35).
You can find more of Bruce’s writings at his website: a-taste-of-grace-with-bruce-green.com