Don’t you just love getting gifts when you least expect them? With my birthday being in mid-August, I thought all my birthday surprises were well behind me, but I was wrong. One of my dearest friends dropped by this past week and gave me the gorgeous quilted table runner pictured above. A late birthday gift. A beautiful gift of love.

The colors and quality of this handcrafted gift make it beautiful all on its own, but it’s especially beautiful to me because I know what a labor of love it was. You see, my friend now has some health problems that make it difficult for her to work on projects like this. Things that she could do lickety-split in past years require much more time and effort on her part now. This gift required sacrifice.

So for me, this quilted gift is not just beautiful. It’s BEAUTIFUL. It’s not just a gift. It’s a GIFT OF LOVE. It speaks volumes to me about our friendship, and it humbled me and gave me great joy to know that she worked so hard on something and then gave it to me. What a blessing. I will cherish it always.

The question for us today is how can we touch other lives with this kind of sacrificial love? What gifts can we give that show the recipients the depth of our feelings for them?

We may not all be able to quilt or make other beautiful handmade gifts (heaven knows I can’t), but we can all give of ourselves in effort and time. Let’s be ready to bless others — maybe even when they least expect it — with beautiful gifts of love. You can bet they will cherish them always.

“Your love has given me great joy and encouragement . . .” Philemon 1:7a

*Guess what? As of this weekend, I have been blogging for four years now! Wow, has that gone fast! Appreciate you all!

*My photo