something for nothing

I spent some time outside with our 3 year old grandson today. It was a beautiful spring day....warm and sunny with just enough breeze to make the leaves dance. I noticed that our wood pile is almost gone. This is the closest we have come to running out of wood in a long time. We have been heating our house, primarily, with a wood burning stove for about 25 years. We have had a cold (well, for middle Georgia, anyway) winter this year. So, we have burned lots of wood. As I was looking at the small stack of logs, I was grateful that spring is here. But, I was also reminded that, in all those years, we have never had to buy firewood. My husband, J, has the motivational gift of giving. That means that God has given him the desire to help meet the needs of others financially. Character qualities of a "giver" are: they are very careful with their money, they don't throw things away unless they are ABSOULUTELY sure they can't use it for anything, they rarely buy anything until they have shopped around for the best price (on everything from a car to toothpaste!),and they take great delight (as my mom use to say about J) in getting "something for nothing"! Part of the motivation for this is that the more they save, the more they have to give away. So, because God has promised that "faithful is He who has called you, who will also do it" (1 Thess. 5:4), He directs him to bargains and freebies.... including firewood. It will be interesting to see where the next load comes from! How often I take for granted all the ways God provides for our needs. Thank you, Father, for the reminder.