Today’s random act of kindness is inspired by my husband’s grandma’s 89th birthday! Because she lives out-of-state (and unable to travel), we decided to celebrate her milestone by blessing a complete stranger with birthday surprises! The kids spent the morning making handmade cards to let our special someone know that we were thinking of them.
We remembered that Great-Grandma loves to play Scrabble and lo and behold we had an extra Scrabble board in our game closet (hey, we love Scrabble, too!) so we wrapped the game and made a dedication label for the outside.
We also knew that Great-Grandma loves flowers, so we bought the prettiest white roses we could find and added a bright ribbon around the vase to spread sunshine for someone’s day.
Great-Grandma lives in a retirement community, so we went to the closest retirement center near us and began our adventure. Who would receive our blessings today?
Well, it didn’t take long at all to find our special someone. As I was signing in to the center (and trying to explain to the receptionist that I really had no idea WHO I was visiting, but that I just wanted to bless someone, anyone) a delightful lady spoke across the hall, “My! What gorgeous flowers you have!” I spun around and lo and behold, my heart just knew. She was our special someone. Before I could respond to her observation, she leaned in closer and said, “Someone is going to be very happy to receive those beautiful flowers!” It was almost like a script from a movie! Laughing, I said, “Well, I think that someone is YOU! Would you like to have these flowers?” She gasped slightly, a bit confused I’m sure, so I jumped in and explained our purpose.
“Today we are celebrating our Great-Grandma’s 89th birthday. She lives far away, so we thought it would be fun to bless someone else as if we were blessing her! Would you like to receive our blessings today? We have handmade cards, flowers, even a present!” She could not stop smiling. “Are you sure? Oh my! How lovely! Yes! Yes! I would love to have these!” She then did what every wonderful grandma does: she ooohed and aaahed over all the cards (making note of the personalized messages), she complimented the children for their time and effort (each child personally handed her their card), she thanked us for the game and then… she stopped to smell the roses. Literally.
We took a picture, gave hugs, then went about our merry way. Blessing others can be such fun – especially when you extend blessings on a birthday!
We can’t wait to share our adventures with Great-Grandma. We love her to pieces and we hope she enjoys being the inspiration for today’s random act of kindness! 🙂
