Malt Teaser!

"Raffle Tickets! I need raffle tickets!" I decided late on Thursday evening.
"Why?"
"Because children love raffles and I don't want to bring any lucky dip presents home. If I convert the lucky dip to a raffle, I am more likely to be able to sell out."

And so, on our way back from Compton Verney, where we had been to view the new Whistler exhibition (interesting but not my taste) we detoured to Tesco. It felt like half the town had also picked this moment to descend on the store.

I searched the stationery section for cloakroom tickets, but they weren't with the envelopes, where I expected, nor did they appear to be anywhere else in the vicinity.
Fortunately, there was a sales assistant shelf filling in the next aisle, just waiting to be annoyed by awkward customers asking pointless questions.
"Can you tell me where the raffle tickets are?" I enquired.

He looked a tad anxious as if I had just asked a question to which he did not know the answer, and led me back to the stationery section where I had been, but focused on the displays opposite.
"We USED to do them..." he muttered, examining some app on his phone to no avail.
"I will go and ask,"  he announced,
having failed to identify a location for this particular item of stock
and departed in search of greater wisdom.

Just as he rounded the corner I spotted them lurking on the bottom shelf.
"Don't worry, I have found them!" I called, hoping that he would hear me.
There was a pause, and then he reappeared back around the corner, and came to gaze in wonderment at the place we both looked, but both had initially failed to see.
It was a bit like that moment when you are reading a passage of scripture, and suddenly a word or phrase stands out in a way it never has before.
It certainly was an answer to prayer, because I really didn't want to go off on a massive search of shops in the vicinity for cloakroom (raffle) tickets at 3:30pm on a Friday evening.
If ever you feel that supermarkets are heathen places, I beg to differ, for the Holy Spirit was definitely present in Tesco's stationery section on the last day of November, and opening the eyes of those who were blind to the location of raffle tickets.

I wandered down the pizza aisle in search of a 4-pack of small cheese and tomato pizzas for the KHT, but the locusts had already passed by. I did, however, get the KHT a couple of scotch eggs as a weekend treat. I detoured via the seasonal aisle in search of some selection boxes, and found some £1 packs of Maltesers and added them to the stash I was carrying.

Having passed through the checkout, the KHT and I headed for the exit. I was carrying the goodies, as I had neglected to take a bag and wasn't going to pay for yet another.
A voice greeted us. It was the leader of one of the local churches was on foodbank duty.
We turned and waved a greeting, and then I found myself in an unexpected dilemma.
The following conversation then took place in my head.
"Should I give away the Maltesers purchased for the Christmas Fayre?"
"No, because you would be doing that in response to what you think that person might be thinking!"
"But what if he is thinking that I am a rubbish Christians, not supporting the food bank and spending all my money on boxes of chocolates..."
"If he thinks that, then he is being judgemental! 
He won't know if that out of the six items you are purchasing, four are to be given away, along with the other items you have already purchased,
or will he have any idea what you have given to the food bank through other channels."
"So you don't think I should give away what I have just bought?"
"NO, you have purchased the sweets and raffle tickets for a specific purpose. 
Stick to your plan and chill. 
He is probably thinking something else entirely. 
If he is judging you, which I doubt, then that is his problem, not yours! 
Don't give just to create a good impression. 
Give because God tells you to give. 
It may be awkward, but it isn't wrong."
It was a 1 Samuel 16:7b moment The Lord does not look at the things people look at. People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.’

The KHT, the Maltesers and I continued on our way...