From the Tales Inbox: He Knows Me

A guest post from loyal reader, Rachel H:

I have always paid tithing. My parents taught us how to do it, the idea stuck with me, and I have paid it on everything from birthday money as a child(because I wanted to) to every dollar I have ever made. I also have loved paying fast offering. Call me crazy, but when I used to pay my tithing and fast offering I would get a little tingle as I wrote it out and sent it in. Even after I was married, it was always “my thing”. I really got an inner enjoyment out of the whole experience.

Sadly, after 10 years of marriage the little tingle went away. I don’t know if it was the business of having children mixed with unprecedented financial stresses, but my zest for tithing was gone. This year, after a few difficult months, we decided to postpone paying it to the end of the year, and pay it in a larger chunk instead of right at the beginning of every month. As the 2 last weeks of December came about, I wrote out the hugest tithing check of my life. And I was not feeling faithful about it at all. With an impending new business startup, and months of NO income in our near future, I called my mother and complained about how much more we could use this money this spring than the church could. “The church HAS money!” I wailed inside. I did not want to send it out.
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Back track to 1 year ago-

We have some cool lively neighbors in their late 50’s who own a couple of day spa/salons in the area and they hired me to decorate their windows for the holidays. In the process, we became fairly good friends.

This year because of other commitments I wasn’t available to do the same for them, but we have stayed friendly neighbors, and as such, we dropped by at Christmas time with my traditional (frosted with their initial) homemade gingerbread cookies and to visit. She was embarrassed that her house was messy because we surprised them and I assured her it was no big deal. I remembered from the year earlier that she had some pretty inherited French styled antiques that I really enjoyed seeing, and I asked if I could show Mark her gorgeous piano. It was so unique I could not have forgotten it from the year before. It was a baby grand, lightly painted with beautiful French scenes, commissioned by her grandmother to be done by a talented painter who had worked for the Tiffany Company. Mark and I ooohed and aahhed over it and then we visited for a while, and then left.
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Soo.. Back to the tithing-

I wrote the check out, and after staring at it on my kitchen counter for too many days, I begrudgingly and guiltily took it to my mailbox for its final goodbye.

Not more than half an hour later, my neighbor called me. I assumed it was to set something up to redecorate her home or one of the salons as we had previously discussed. She chatted with me about our lives for a while, and then said “Rachel, there was another thing I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Really?” I waited.

“My husband and I felt like your visit to us was more than coincidence. You see, when we saw your excitement and interest in our piano, we looked at each other in shock. You know I only have one son, and he has no interest in it. My two sisters live in Arizona and it’s just not their style. We have the same style, you and I.”

I was anticipating her making us some sort of offer, but I couldn’t imagine the price she might want for this precious heirloom…whatever it was I was preparing myself to say, “Thank you so much for offering it to us first, but we surely can’t afford it right now…maybe someday!”

I waited as she continued, “I have spoken to an antiques consigner and he has said he would sell it for us.”
She continued, “But that is not what we want to do. We would like to do a barter. In exchange for your design services, we would like you and Mark to have it.”

WHAAAAAAAT?

Were my ears hearing correctly? “Have you thought this through?” I asked in complete shock. “Yes! We felt like it was divine intervention when you came over that day. We looked at eachother and knew you two would love it and care for it.”

“OHHHH, We would!!!!” I said near tears, “And, if you miss it, you can come by any time and sit on the bench just for fun!” I cried. When I put down the phone I poured tears like the rain. I couldn’t believe that Heavenly Father could touch my heart in such a way. No one could have known that I had been longing to get a piano for months. I had been slowly looking, dreaming about relearning a talent I had long forgotten. And even that day earlier as we drove home my husband and I talked about what it might cost to buy such a beautiful piano. I was only dreaming about it because I knew it would be quite a while before we could ever afford to get the one I really wanted.
My heart has been taught. I will never doubt my tithing again. I know that Heavenly Father knows me, my feelings and my fears and my dreams.

And the piano,
It is scheduled for delivery on Wednesday.