heaven sent

earlier this week the good neighbor and i, along with the kids, drove to grand rapids. to do some goodwill shopping. they have the best goodwill stores. unbelievably good. not just the stuff in the stores. but the stores themselves. they are like department stores. all of their clothes are sorted by size. each kind of clothing is marked the same price. and i have only found a few items that have had a stain. or have been ripped. and i have been going there for years. and they don't even staple a price tag in their beautifully donated clothing either. imagine that. anyway, we had gone to one goodwill, had eaten lunch at real food cafe and then we were off to another goodwill. while we were there will was in my cart and sophie was in the good neighbor's cart. as i rounded the corner in the housewares aisle there was an older lady reaching for a cookie jar that was a snowman next to a christmas tree. will's eyes lit up in delight as she pulled the top off of the christmas tree part. we exchanged pleasantries with the lady. i said to will that it looked like the cookie jar found a nice new home as she placed the cookie jar into her cart. will had agreed that yes it had. so, we continued to look around the store. we checked out each others treasures. took sophie to the bathroom. three times. and as the good neighbor and i met up again i noticed an employee standing next to my cart. i apologized. as i thought i was in her way. she had, in her hands, a wrapped item in a tied goodwill bag. she told me there was no need to apologize. i wasn't in her way. she was there to give me this bag. a customer [the older lady] told her she saw the light in my son's eyes when she took the lid off of this cookie jar. she bought it. and wanted him to have it. and disappeared. without a trace.