So are you supposed to ask a valet for change if you don’t have the right bills in your wallet to tip him?

I’ve had so many visits to my dentist lately I feel like they should be paying me.  But at least the office is in a lovely tall medical building overlooking the Intracoastal waterway, yachts and swaying palm trees.  And there is a valet for my car.  Which is also lovely, except when you don’t have the right bills in your wallet to tip appropriately.

Such was the case yesterday morning.

So I struggled with the quandary:  Do I ask for change, or give them what I had? Giving them what I had was way more than I would usually fork over for a 30 minute dental visit, but it wasn’t going to put me in the poor house to part with it. So I decided that I would brighten their probably-boring Monday morning with a very generous tip.  I actually started to get kind of excited about bestowing this unexpected blessing onto one of the young men in the blue polo shirts.  I saw one grab my key off the rack, sprint up around the corner and soon enough there he was with my car.  I folded up the bill and with a smile, tucked it into his hand, feeling all happy with myself.  Another lady getting into the car in front of me gave him something as well.  And then I watched to see if he’d look at what I had given him.

Nope.  He wadded up both tips without even glancing at them and tossed them into a white bucket at the valet station.

Hey wait a minute!  Didn’t he know I had given him an unexpected gift?  Didn’t he realize that I was waiting to see his surprised expression and grateful look in my direction?

He didn’t know.  He didn’t realize.  Or he just assumed it was one of those $1.00 tips he usually gets for parking the cars of patients.

As I drove away, slightly miffed, God suddenly reminded me that there have been times I’ve done the same thing to Him.  There have been times when He has blessed me far beyond what I deserved at the time.  He’s given me gifts that He was probably waiting for me to notice, to smile about, to see that I’d been taken care of in a completely unexpected way.  And I just bet that there have been plenty of times I took the blessing, wadded it up in my hand and tossed it aside without a second glance.  Because I didn’t know.  I didn’t realize. Or maybe worse yet – I didn’t expect it.

Am I like the valet guy?  Have I stopped expecting that today will bring a blessing, that today God might place something in my hand that is above and beyond the ordinary?  Do I appear…ungrateful?

May I start looking for the completely unexpected and merciful generosity of a Father who may simply want to see me smile when I open my hand and see what He has placed there.  Just for me.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above… James 1:17