As a pastor and small business owner, I look for God moments every day. I can experience these supernatural moments in different ways. The moments are experienced as something I see (in cloud formations), something I hear (in worship music on the radio), or something I do (in praying for someone). These moments inspire me, confirm I am going in the right direction on the right path, and show the way forward on my journey each day.

On Monday I began reading Og Mandino’s The Greatest Salesman in the World. I have not read this book before that I can recall. The story was fascinating to me from the beginning, and as a very visual person, it felt like I was watching it as a movie as I read.

In chapter four of the book, Hafid is now in Bethlehem, trying to sell the first thing Pathros has entrusted him with – a valuable red robe. It’s now Hafid’s fourth day of trying to sell it, and he is very discouraged at his inability to sell it. He decides to sleep in a cave with his animal.

When Hafid gets to the cave, there are seeming intruders, but they turn out to simply be a young couple and their new-born baby. He notices the mother is cold, and realizes they have wrapped their baby in their cloaks to keep the infant warm. Hafid knows what he has to do.

On page 31 of the book, Hafid does this – “Hafid closed his eyes and sighed…Then Hafid opened his precious red robe and wrapped it gently around the sleeping child.” He takes his valuable robe, the only thing he has to sell, and wraps it around the baby. He has now given everything he believes he has to begin his future as a salesman.

This story reminded me of the birth of Jesus – likely in a cave, likely swaddled with tattered clothes, and lying in a manger. Hafid gives his most precious possession to serve the most precious gift God the Father has ever given us – his Son Jesus. The color of the robe is even significant – red to represent Jesus’ blood shed for us on the cross.

In my Master Key Experience, I am beginning by being reminded of this in today’s God moment – everything I am gifted and called to do is to be in generous service to others.