A VERY SPECIAL EASTER

(EARLY DAYS - Charlie and me and Virginia and Dotty on our laps)

A VERY SPECIAL EASTER

As the lady got into her car she looked at me and smiled, “I can’t tell you who sent me, but I can tell you one thing…it’s sure great to be a messenger for the king.” With that she drove away and I was left standing with my mouth gaped open in surprise.

The woman, who at that time was a stranger, had come by my house to bring me some Christian books, tapes and an envelope containing $135. There was no way possible she could have known our electricity was being turned off the very next day because of two months of non-payment.

It had been a tough year for us. Charlie had back surgery, leaving him out of work for months with no paycheck. My income from writing articles for the Macon Telegraph was a whopping $200 a month. Food stamps became a necessity to feed five hungry children and I learned what it meant to be humbled because of circumstances beyond our control.

To make matters worse it was the Easter season and our church was having their annual Easter egg hunt. What seemed like a minor need was huge for us. Our two little girls needed Easter baskets and we had no money for gas for our car, much less non-essential items.

The next day I triumphantly paid the electric bill (which took nearly the whole $135) and with a few dollars worth of gas in the car, headed for the little town of Chauncy to interview some school board members for a news article.

On the way back home I kept thinking about the Easter baskets and decided I would stop at a drugstore and see if I might be able to squeeze enough money out of our depleted bank account to buy them.

Just as I reached for a little basket I heard the voice of the Lord. “If you buy these baskets I’ll not give you good baskets.” My hand jumped back from the $1.29 item and I responded, “Okay, Lord. I’m going to trust you on this one.”

That night our son Jeff, who was very concerned about his little sisters, came into our room. We knelt by the bed and prayed about the need for Easter baskets. I assured him that if God could supply money for a big electric bill, then surely Easter baskets were no problem to Him.

The next morning before we were out of bed the phone rang. “Mrs. Tuck, someone called me and asked me if you could possibly use two Easter baskets.”

One hour before the time the girls were supposed to be at the church, the same lady who had brought the money, showed up at our door with two of the biggest Easter baskets I had ever seen in my life! They were filled with wonderful goodies…candy, gum, sunglasses and in addition to the baskets she brought an Easter card containing $25 and a beautiful cake for all of us to enjoy.

While the girls were at the Easter egg hunt I was able to purchase material for Easter finery. Although I struggled to keep awake during Easter services because of sewing until the wee hours of the morning, Dotty and Virginia were the happiest little girls in the church.

That had to be one of the best Easters we’ve ever experienced. Not just because Jesus proved again that He was our Jehovah-Jireh (our provider), but because we knew He really was alive.

Many years ago a young Jewish man posed a question to Alfred Ackley, "Why should I worship a dead Jew?" Ackley replied emphatically that he knew Jesus was alive because he had just talked with him. Subsequently, in 1933 Ackley wrote a hymn entitled, I SERVE A RISEN SAVIOR.

The chorus of the song says it all: “He lives, he lives, Christ Jesus lives today. He walks with me, He talks with me, along the narrow way. You ask me how I know He lives, He lives within my heart.”

Do you know He’s alive? Does He talk with you every day? Are you experiencing the resurrection life of Christ?

“Jesus said, I am the resurrection and the life. He that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live.” John 11:25