Herb and Mabel

"I'm riding with Daddy in the BIG Truck!"  My two year old excitedly climbed into his car seat in the RV. (Don't worry it was in the olden days before kids weren't allowed in front seats.)  He loved being up high in the RV and passing cars.

We were using the Watanabes' RV.  Herb and Mabel were members of our church and offered us the use of the RV.  We used it on several occasions for trips to San Francisco and San Diego.  I drove our little car  and Adam wanted nothing to do with riding in a lowly car with Mom when Dad and the BIG truck were an option.

I remembered the Watanabe's when I read Deuteronomy 16:13-17. These verses describe the Festival of Tabernacles.  The Israelites were to celebrate for 7 days after gathering the produce of the threshing floor and the winepress.  They were told to be joyful at their festival and to share the joy with everyone from their children to foreigners.  They were to bring a gift  to the Lord in proportion to the way God had blessed them.

These verses made me think that God tells us to enjoy His generous gifts as if they were ours, just as the Watanabes.  When I asked myself when I had been loaned something and encouraged to use it as if it were mine, I thought of Herb and Mabel. 

They were exceptionally generous.  They bought the RV from someone  who needed help.  They offered it to us to use as often as we wished.  I can't remember a time when they actually used it themselves.

Herb and Mabel were hardworking people.  They owned the town pharmacy.  I know they opened up late at night for people who needed a prescription in the night because they did it for us on more than one occasion. 

They always had grace and a smile.  They tenderly told me about the "crazy lady" (who was not so tender!) that wandered the town.  So I left my aluminum cans in a special bag near my trash can so she could easily retrieve them.  Herb and Mabel told me that rummaging through the alley trash cans was her livelihood. 

Herb had grown up in town and in our church.  His father had a landscape business in town until the family was sent to a Japanese internment camp during World War II.  Herb and Mabel met there.  After they married they returned to town to build a thriving business.  l will always admire how they lived their lives, sharing and generous, without bitterness.

I am privileged to have learned from the Watanabes about our generous God, who gives me so many blessings and expects me to enjoy these blessings as if they were mine.   All He asks is for me to share the blessings and to be generous about my sharing.

Thanks, Herb and Mabel for being my example.  (And thanks Mabel for the best oriental chicken salad recipe ever- we just call it Mabel's salad regardless of what the recipe book says!)