Lydia loved to give things away crafts, baked goods, items she picked up at auctions or sales. It seemed her mind was always thinking about who might enjoy a pick-me-up, an act of encouragement, an expression of love.

When she baked, she baked enough to fill several paper plates to take to neighbors, people at work, her daughter's teacher, some shut-ins at church.

When she learned a new craft, everyone knew it, because Lydia would share with them.

Once, at a garage sale, she spent a dollar for a whole box of old animal figurines ü muddy, greasy, ready-for-the-trash figurines. She cleaned each one with an old toothbrush, glued it to a three-by-five card, and wrote a scripture verse on the card.

On the card with a little bird, she wrote, "Look at the birds of the air; they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?"

Placing a sheep on a card, she wrote, "The Lord is my Shepherd."

One figure was an armadillo; on that card, she wrote, "Put on the whole armor of God."

And the figure of the pink and purple mouse, dressed in red bow tie and rainbow colored top hat, she wrote, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your minds."

She greatly enjoyed this project, because she pictured in advance each person to whom she would give that figurine. The zebra was for the nurse who cared for her aunt, the lion for the old man who lives alone in the house behind her, the turtle for the little boy at church who broke his leg. As she delivered them she enjoyed the responses of others and her own joy within.

One day, soon after she had delivered the figurines, Lydia was surprised to see at her door old Mr. Lyons (the one to whom she had given the lion). He handed her a little box which contained a beautifully carved teakwood dove ü smooth, intricately detailed, right down to the feathers and the compassionate eyes.

Lydia's eyes widened. "Oh Mr. Lyons, this is beautiful. Where did you find this?"

His eyes sparked as he said, "Inside a piece of wood; of course I had to whittle away some of the wood to find it."

"I am so overwhelmed. This is so beautiful, such a special part of you. I don't know what to say. I gave you so little. You gave me so much. How can I ever thank you?"

"You already have. This is my gift to you. Your gratitude is your gift to me. They are not dependent on each other; they are both gifts. Like God's gift of grace, and our gifts of gratitude."

He smiled and excused himself to return home. Lydia smiled with a tear in her eye and a rush of joy in her heart. As she walked back to the kitchen, she saw that Mr. Lyons had placed a card in the box. It read, "For we are what God has made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand to be our way of life."