God is in the business of strategically positioning us in the right place at the right time—of that I’m sure. He is ordering our footsteps and preparing good works in advance. And that means that the person next to you isn’t there by accident. May God give us the peripheral vision to spot the divine appointments that are around us all the time.

A few years ago, I was getting some work done on our car. I asked our mechanic to fix a flat, change the oil, and check the fluids. When I went to pick it up, the bill seemed a little lower than it should have been, but far be it from me to argue about that. After charging my credit card, the gas-station attendant handed me my keys, except they weren’t my keys. They were the keys of the woman who happened to be right behind me in line!

I knew they could cancel my credit-card transaction, but I made a spontaneous decision. I turned to the woman behind me and said, “Merry Christmas! Your repair is paid for!” For the record, the bill was only forty-one dollars. So it caught me a little off guard when she started crying! She kept saying, “Thank you. Thank you.” And I kept saying, “Merry Christmas! Merry Christmas!”

I’m not sure why she had such an emotional reaction to what was a relatively small gesture of generosity, but I have a few theories. Either she had fallen on hard financial times and couldn’t afford the repair, or it had been way too long since she had been on the receiving end of a random act of kindness. Either way, few things are more fun than flipping those kinds of blessings! It can turn a rather mundane moment into an unforgettable memory! It can turn a ten-second encounter into a divine appointment that makes a difference for eternity.

Merry Christmas!