I never would say that my mom and I lived in a two-bedroom closet, but to say that my high-school bedroom was small would be a grand overstatement.  All I can remember about my tiny room was that I slept on a skinny old mattress that took up most of the floor space.  We couldn’t afford a box-spring, so my mattress laid on the ground like a dirty old rag.

My mom worked hard, long hours for close to minimum wage, while I picked rocks out of a field and baled hay for a nearby farmer.  I’m not sure if it was from my mattress or from picking up rocks, but for being a teenager, my back seemed to hurt most of the time.

And then one day near Christmas it all changed.  My mom went to the mailbox and someone had given us $500 cash – tax free cash money – and they gave it anonymously.  What a windfall for us.  My mom used the money to buy a new bed and box spring for me, and my back stopped hurting.

What a blessing from heaven!   To this day, my mom and I have no idea who gave us this gift, but we still reminisce, and are still thankful to God.

Perhaps it was someone from our church.  Probably someone who thought $500 was a lot of money – as it most certainly was.  Most likely it was someone who felt inspired by a message or nudged by an angel to help a middle-aged mom and her kid.

But no matter who this dear person was, I will forever be grateful and thankful to God.  Yes, God gets the glory!  God is the one who blessed someone else to be a blessing to us.  God is the one who gives us every good gift.  God sent an angel – probably disguised as a friend who also knew that the credit ultimately belonged to God.

Don’t we all have angels in our past?  Angels who were angels – because of a love for God.

So today let’s ask God who we can bless anonymously.  Who could use a gentle and unsigned note of encouragement?  Who could be blessed by the pizza man bringing a paid-for-pizza to the door?  Who could be blessed with some cash from an angel?

In fact, let’s send out angels everywhere – together.  What if you pass this message onto the angels that you know!  Together, we’ll praise God and have an anonymous angel fest!