Generosity and Thoughtfulness

(No, this isn't Graham's second post on works, this is Tony writing one in the middle)

I'm in France right now, in the area of Burgundy. We're staying in a little stone cottage in the town of Champagny Sous Uxelles which has a population of 60. This is the most beautiful countryside I've ever seen and I've been trying to figure out a way to move here. Since I cannot and will not be a farmer, I've decided I could be an editor for a physics journal - with some journals they're allowed to work remotely - or a novelist - not too likely I'm afraid.

Anyway, we are living in the cottage 50m from 'the big house' - think, To the Manor Born, but not nearly so big - where the couple who own this place reside on weekends and for longer periods in summer. They are delightful people who have taken us wine tasting, given us two cooking lessons, and right now have taken the others to the markets.

On Wednesday we went to Paris. We took the fast train at 8am and returned home at 10pm. It was a horrifically long day, especially since we'd pushed Rose so far. Good, but horrific.

When we returned, Christine (one of the couple) had left dinner on our outside table. There was a beautiful red wine, some Camembert (which in France is overflowing with flavour), some delicious vegies, and crepes with three small jars of (homemade?) jams. All this together with a note saying words to the effect of "you must be hungry".

It was a truly wonderful act of Generosity and Thoughtfulness.

My in-laws were gob-smacked. They couldn't believe it. It was the nicest thing anyone has ever done for them, they said.

I was not particularly blown away though. It was a really nice thing to do, sure. But it wasn't ground-breaking. I don't want to take away from her generosity by any means, it's just that, people have done things like this for us before. Many times. There was an apparent need (we'd been on a long trip), and so someone who we have very little connection to, did something generous and thoughtful for us.

This made me realise some of the ways that God's people really are transformed by the spirit through community. In Wollongong there were, as I said, many occasions when someone would leave a meal, or a meal voucher, or a travel voucher, or something else thoughtful and out of the blue on our doorstep and we'd come home to find it there.

And it turns out that in the real world of nice, but un-transformed people, this is a pretty rare thing.

The first thing I thought when I saw it there was "I wonder if these guys are Christians?" I don't think they are - and in France it's very unlikely that they are - but it's such a tidy explanation. This little thought process made me realise how little I expect from the rest of the world. Isn't that sad too?

Anyway, just saying.