This week I received a random act of kindness from someone at my school: a note in my mailbox stating, “You are worth a million! Good Luck”, attached to a lottery ticket. What a delightful surprise! It’s kind of funny to be on the receiving end of a RAK – I was humbled that someone might want to bless ME instead of the other way around!
Little does this person know, but lottery tickets have a special meaning for me and my family. In fact, I’ve been scratching lottery tickets since I was a child (shhhhh… don’t tell!) See, my grandmother thought lottery tickets were the most amazing surprises in the world. She loved the anticipation that led up to the “big reveal”. Each Christmas, she would line up our “lotto stockings” (small stockings just big enough for a few lottery tickets to slide inside) and hide a quarter or dollar coin inside. She knew it would be the first thing we looked for coming to her house on Christmas Eve. We would talk about all the wonderous things we would buy with our winnings. I’d promise to take her to the mountains in the winter to watch the snow fall and she’d promise to take me to a tropical island where we would sip fancy drinks all day long.
We never won more than a few dollars here or there with our lotto stockings, but I later realized the real joy wasn’t in the end result, but everything that led up to that moment. Lotto stockings, for me, were about sharing hopes and dreams with my grandma.
Although my grandma went to live with Jesus more than ten years ago, we still keep the lotto stockings tradition alive through my dad, affectionately known as Pappy. Here are a few pictures of my sister and I scratching our tickets this past Christmas (I won $6! Woo-Hoo!!)
Which brings me back to my blessings received – the mystery lotto ticket in my mailbox. As soon as I realized it was a lottery ticket, it brought a smile to my heart because of two reasons: 1) someone thought I was worthy of a note and a surprise and 2) lottery tickets always, always, ALWAYS remind me of my grandma, which always makes me smile. 🙂
So I grabbed a coin and scratched away.
Unfortunately, despite the well wishes of my RAK giver, I am not worth a million today. However, I know without a shadow of a doubt that I am worth MORE than a million to some little kiddos who share my home. To them, I am worth the stars and the moon, forever and a day, as they for me. 🙂
Thank you, kind stranger, for spending your own time and money so that I might have a moment of joy. You are a blessing to me! I promise to pay it forward, so don’t be surprised when you see one of my #26acts as a copycat of your RAK today! 🙂
