The Pizza

Saturday was beautiful.

First one without rain in a month.

I had big plans to take the kids to the Children’s Festival since Bray was back in town but between a break-neck paced work week, an overnight Friday board meeting, bad news about my father’s health, and getting sick, I texted Bray before lunch that I wasn’t sure I could do one more thing.  He told me to “come on home,” which were the sweetest words I’d heard all week.

So aside from begging the kids to take a little nap and watching them play soccer in our driveway, we didn’t do much else.

Talk turned to dinner and the kids wanted pizza.  We’ve been watching our budget and we neither had any pizza or planned to spend the money to order one.  The kids, standing in the back of Bray’s pick up in the driveway, began to chant, “Pizza, pizza, pizza!” with increase crescendo.

Our sweet neighbor kids appeared through the little hole between our driveway and their yard, “we have pizza!”  I laughed.  They went on to explain, “we had a soccer party at our house.”

“What fun for you guys,” I replied and they agreed and scampered off.

Sixty seconds later, they reappeared with their mom.  Their mom and I have become friends over the past year and we made eye contact through the slats in the fence, “Hey, I heard you guys chanting for pizza.  We really did just have a soccer party and have four whole pizzas left over.”  She lifted a big box of pizza to appear over the fence, “We can’t eat them.  Would you like one?”

Bray and I looked at each other and laughed as the kids began to cheer and chant louder from his truck.  “Absolutely, thanks so much,” I replied.  He continued, “Next time I’m going to have them chant for lobster!”  She laughed as she handed the box over the fence.

It had been a hard week, friends.  And I know we serve a God of big miracles.  But sometimes we forget we serve a God who loves doing small things for us too.  We say nothing is too BIG for Him to do, but we should also remember, nothing is too small for Him either.  He loves each of us and our family so much that sometimes He sends a pizza over the fence.

This is the really remarkable part to me.  One year ago, I stood in my front yard with a box of pizzas and a wacky painted table having invited our neighbors to come and meet and eat together one evening.  We had never met that sweet family on the other side of the fence from us.  They have a daughter one year older than our children and a son one year younger (to the day).  Our kids now crawl between the hole in our “fence” to play in each other’s yard.  They’ve become one of the sweetest treasures of our neighborhood.  Had I not obeyed God and stood in that front yard with legs quaking and passed out invitations to our neighbors, we would have never met.  They went home with a box of leftover pizza that night one year ago.

God returned it one year later on a day we needed a reminder He’s got the whole world in His hands.

He can stand in the midst of the greatest wars and most horrific losses and still meet our little individual heart needs.  With something as simple as a pizza over a fence.