Surprise Thank You Gift

by Suzanne McCarthy for TCC

You never know what surprises G-d has in store for you when you come home from work! On Thursday afternoon when I arrived home, I noticed a package sitting on the kitchen island. It was one of those boxes from the US Postal Service. I wondered who it was for and since I hadn't ordered anything from my two favorite vendors, QVC and Amazon.com, I didn't think the box was for me.

When my husband asked me, "What did you order?" I replied "I didn't order anything!" but his question clued me in that the package was for me, so I walked over and picked it up. The return address said:
HOPE OF THE WORLD
Box 1111
Lodi, NJ
07644-7111.

Hope of the World is a wonderful ministry that preaches the Gospel and does a lot of humanitarian work with an orphanage in Liberia and some outreaches in India, some in South Sudan, Israel, New Guinea, Haiti, Mexico. Years ago I donated to them, but had stopped due to donating to some other ministries.

About four months ago, I started donating again after I received a complimentary copy of their little devotional magazine called SAPPHIRES and a wonderful teaching tape. I have not donated any large amounts to them since my husband and I tithe to our church and he is retired.

As soon as I sent the first donation, Hope of the World began sending me a tape each month which are some of the best teachings I have ever heard. Jonathan Cahn makes the Scriptures come alive and I look forward to the tapes each month now, but I knew that I hadn't ordered extra tapes, so what was in this box?

At that point my husband came over and wanted me to open it so we both could see what was inside and oh my, what a surprise awaited me!

When I opened the box, the first thing I noticed was that something was tightly wrapped in bubble wrap---the big bubble kind. "Oh this will be fun for the grandchildren to pop!" was my thought as I reached in and drew whatever was inside out into the light of day. As I carefully cut through the tape that sealed the edges of the bubble wrap I realized that whatever was in here was breakable and that piqued my interest even more.

I discovered a picture frame inside the bubble wrap, and as I turned it over I gasped in surprise! The picture frame was lovely in its simplicity, done in a softly burnished gold finish and inside the picture frame, under glass, were blue ribbons laid out which framed a hand-made Torah Scroll with a message in the center. The blue ribbons were the same shade as the blue stripes on the prayer shawl that Jewish men wear, and the edges of the ribbons were silver and were cut in such a way that the daylight reflected off them like prisms!

The colors were beautiful! The Torah Scroll inside had finials, top and bottom, left side and right side made of gold lace, and the body of each side of the Scroll was the same shade of blue as the ribbons which framed it! It truly is beautiful! Inside where the writing would be on a Torah Scroll was my name with a citation thanking me for joining together with that ministry to bless G-d's people!

I was speechless! My husband said that he had never seen a "Thank You" such as this! Our son was there too, and he said, "Mom! Somebody made this! This is not a mass-produced item, nor is it just a store-bought certificate!" All three of us were astonished at this lovely gift! None of us had never seen such a lovely "Thank You" from any ministry before! It was obvious that someone in Hope of the World Ministries was using their talent to glorify G-d and to bless others, and it now sits on my desk along with the photos of our grandchildren.

As we stood by the window looking at this beautiful gift, the winter sunlight danced across the prisms on the ribbons under the glass and all the colors were a reflection of the beauty that G-d had created outside. The blue sky with the white clouds were in the white background with the blue ribbons. The sunshine was dancing across the gold of the finials on the Torah Scroll, and the snow outside was reflecting the sunlight like diamonds just like the prisms on the ribbons were breaking the sunlight into all the colors of the rainbow.

Thank you, Hope of the World, for this lovely gift. Only when we all meet in Heaven will you realize how much it meant to us that day!

Click here to visit Hope of the World web site

... a quote from Hope of the World website ...

Jonathan Cahn is President of Hope of the World ministries, Senior Pastor, and Rabbi of the Beth Israel Worship Center in Garfield, New Jersey. His teachings are broadcast daily over hundreds of radio stations throughout the United States and the world. He can also be seen weekly on television ("Something Different").

Descended of the line of Aaron, Cahn has been asked to sound the Jubilee trumpet and minister among the nations, a prophetic ministry of and to the Jew and the Gentile in the last days. His teachings include the revealing of ancient mysteries, the depth and wonders of God's Word, and the restoration of the Gospel message in its original Biblically Jewish context, richness, and power.