Beyond Gratitude

As I was adding the pictures to my last post, there was a knock at the door.  I wasn't expecting anyone at 2 in the afternoon.  I thought maybe it was the Jehovah's Witnesses coming back with another copy of The Watch Tower.  To my complete surprise, my Dad and my brother Chad were standing on my front porch.  Then I looked over to the driveway, and there was my parents' van. 

It took me a few minutes.  "Wait.  You DROVE here."  Uh-huh.  "From California."  Yep.  "You just DROVE here."

I was telling my father that most people don't just show up from California unannounced.  Then I stopped and said, "Nevermind.  You do that all the time."  My father stops by on business trips when he has layovers and he'll spend a day or two with my family and then fly out again.  It's great.  But he's never shown up with my brother, with their van.

With gifts!  He brought me a new computer, and my brother Chad's computer expertise to install it.  Chad re-invented our laptop, got the new computer to do what we wanted it to, and then my father got us several software and hardware upgrades.  ...  Remember in my last post when I said that I like it when Christmas ends?  Just kidding!  I like it when Christmas extends into January.

But the biggest gift was the van itself.  My dad and brother drove here and then flew home, leaving the van for my family.  ...  I don't even have words for it.  I would say that I feel grateful, but grateful isn't good enough.  It was an act of love, combined with a super-human effort.  My mother now doesn't have a car.  I mean, there are other people's cars at her house, and she can get around, but she just gifted her van to me because "I needed it more."  Then my dad and brother spent a lot of time and effort and money to drive it to me.  What are the right words for this occasion?  Certainly "thank you" doesn't cut it.

I feel extremely grateful to be surrounded by good people who love me.  People who think it's a higher good to help others instead of keeping for themselves.  People who have helped us when it didn't make any sense for them to do so.  People who give with no thought of getting back.  I am amazed by these people, and I hope someday to be known as the same kind of person.

Thank you.