The families we serve often carry very heavy baggage, just beneath the surface. This sad truth was illustrated perfectly during a recent delivery to a woman named Tanya, whose only piece of furniture was a mattress lying on the floor.

As I ran through the long list of the items we were delivering, she stopped me. “You brought a bookshelf?” she exclaimed.

Indeed, Tanya had not requested a bookshelf. When selecting furniture an hour earlier we had included the piece since it matched the coffee and end table set we had for her.

What we didn’t know was how much the item would mean to Tanya. “My son was killed a few years ago” she said. “I have never had a place to display his urn and pictures. This is perfect.”

It would be easy to dismiss this as a happy coincidence. My time at My Brother’s Keeper, however, has taught me that this was not a coincidence, but a Christ-incidence. We see God’s presence every day on these deliveries – when the recipient is moved by a bag of beautifully packaged linens or the color of the couch we are delivering exactly matches the apartment’s curtains.

For Tanya, this presence took the simple form of a bookshelf. How humbling to witness Christ operating in front you!