Sermon Illustrations
Woman Turns Amazon Shipping Mistake into Hospital Windfall
It started as a mistake, but ended as a sizable donation. Julian Cannan still hasn’t gotten a straight answer for why so many Amazon packages were delivered to her home. Unlike the vast majority of such shipments, it did not start with her ordering them.
It started on June 5th. Cannan thought the first round of packages were somehow connected to her business. "I thought my business partner had ordered something for our studio that we were waiting for on backorder. So I opened them up to condense the boxes and I realized they were mask brackets."
Mask brackets are a newly-engineered device that’s supposed to make the wearing of a mask more comfortable by removing the direct contact of the mask from the face. Because the package had her address but not her name, she just figured it was an honest mistake and moved on.
But then they kept coming. And coming. Over one hundred packages of mask brackets arrived over a two-week period at her house, a pile that could’ve easily eclipsed her front door and portions of her windows.
After repeated contacts with Amazon, they confirmed that the seller was aware of the mistake and would stop, but they did not request any returns. Instead, Jill convinced them to ship the packages to a local hospital, where they could do the most good.
Cannan said, “I do own a DYI studio. We do a lot of kits for kids and adults and things like that. Having multiple children myself and having them had different hospital stays, I kind of wanted to come up with something creative that would break the monotony of them being in the hospital.”
Possible Preaching Angle:
Sometimes the things that look like random mistakes are actually opportunities for us to demonstrate kindness and generosity. We shouldn't be dishonest or fraudulent, but if God gives you an unexpected blessing that might be your cue to bless someone else instead.