Just a Simple Greeting Card

Article by Guest Writer Lauri Lemke Thompson

Betty’s mother Kathleen had been confined to a nursing home for several months. One day, while her family was visiting her, Kathleen suffered a stroke. Shortly thereafter, a woman from the facility appeared at the door of her room and announced “Mail Call,” bringing in a greeting card. It was from someone in the card ministry at the church.

“My nephew (her grandson) brought the card over,” Betty wrote in an email to the woman at church who coordinated the ministry.

“Kneeling by her bed, he read it to her. She was still conscious but unable to speak or see well. It was the most beautiful and caring card and had I Peter 5:7 in it, which talks about God’s care for her.

“The card came at the perfect time, and this was the last card and Scripture she received before losing consciousness. She passed away three days later.”

Betty asked the coordinator to relay a message to those involved in faithfully writing out, addressing and sending those encouraging cards each month: “Please tell them how much those beautiful cards that came month after month meant to my mother.

“I know they made her so happy, even up to the very end,” Betty wrote. “And to receive that last one was a gift from God.”

Look at the effect that one simple card had on a family going through a stressful time – and how it arrived in God’s perfect timing! But someone had to send it.

Perhaps you do something regularly to serve others that feels painstaking, menial and even tiresome. Many tasks we do for churches and community or Christian organizations take time and effort and we may wonder “Does anyone even read this? Does anyone care or appreciate my efforts? I wonder if it has any impact at all.”

A word of thanks for what we do is often absent. That’s when we need to decide if we will be faithful in the little things.

Paul wrote “So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” Galatians 6:9 (NLT). He also wrote to the Christians in Corinth “Therefore, my dear brothers and sisters, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord,?because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain.” I Corinthians 15:58 (NIV).

Don’t give up. Instead, press forward with those responsibilities, even if they sometimes seem inconsequential. You may not always know the results of your efforts. No matter: God says “Your labor is not in vain.”

“I long to accomplish a great and noble task, but it is my chief duty to accomplish small tasks as if they were great and noble.”

–Helen Keller

Published by permission of the Branson Globe

Lauri’s Bio

A Wisconsin native, Lauri Lemke Thompson appreciates living with her husband in the lovely Ozark mountains in Branson, Missouri. She is active in Christian Women’s Connection (Stonecroft) and the Ozarks Chapter of the American Christian Writers. Her two books, Hitting Pause and Pressing Forward, are collections of her columns, articles and devotions. Her bimonthly column appears in the Branson Globe newspaper.

A few other articles by Lauri Lemke Thompson.