Yes, I told you about my fantastic finds at our local MCC thrift store, but I did not mention the little event that occurred as a result of that trip. Oh, and it's such a good one!
Picture this: I walk into the (stale) little building carrying a 25 pound almost-one-year-old baby on my hip. My jacket is bulging from the 19 week old baby in my abdomen. I huff and puff as I attempt to hold on to my squirmy child with one aching arm and peruse the used books with the other. Two little elderly ladies speaking German are sitting at a table to one side, watching me in this gong show.
I find my three little diamonds in the rough and hastily plop them on the checkout counter. Remembering the milk glass vases I had seen earlier (for FIVE CENTS), I rush off to grab them to complete my purchase.
It must have been then, that brief moment that I was absent from the counter, that the ladies made their move.
When I finally got back into the car, having gratefully deposited my little heft in his throne, I hastily proceeded to peruse my $1.60 purchase.
"What are these?" I ask, seeing two small booklets - which I had not purchased - hidden beneath the books and vases. I pull them out, fearing I had unwittingly stolen from a thrift store, which would have been the epitome of moral shame.
"Can I Really Trust the Bible?" and "How To Be A Healthy Christian" scream out at me from the dated covers. I am greatly confused. I pause a moment to think about what in my conduct had warranted the giving of these tracts - for tracts they were.
Baby on hip? I was patient with him. Baby in tummy? Nothing wrong with that. What I was wearing? Modest and neat. What on earth made them think...
... No wedding band.
I stifle a laugh as I grasp the reality of the situation. My wedding bands have long since found a home in my jewelry box, thanks to the seemingly permanent expansion of my knuckles (o, unpredictability, thy name is pregnancy). For the most part, I've never felt like anyone has misinterpreted my marital status, most of the errands I run being completed with the companionship of my husband. Even though I've lived in the community of MacG for almost five years, I am too infrequently in town to become one of those faces that everyone recognizes. Again, I laugh.
I don't begrudge the actions of those two ladies. All I can say for them is that they were being faithful to what they believed true. I must say, though, that I've never been personally witnessed to before, and I've certainly never found it this comical.
this is so cute andrea!
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