Recently I was visiting a member of our church who has done a lot of work with Coca-Cola, and he showed me his collection of Coke memorabilia. As we were talking, I told him about a custom I observed when I was growing up in Pine Bluff, Arkansas. In our town, whenever a member of a family was “promoted to the Church Triumphant,” the obituary would give the address where the family would gather for several days prior to the service. Visitation did not take place at the funeral home over a two-hour period but at a relative’s home over several days. People would drop by with dishes, casseroles, paper goods, and so on. And if you were a friend of the family who owned the local bottling company, a couple of cases of 6½ ounce Cokes would appear on the front porch. I clearly remember when my grandmother died and I came home, there the Cokes were on the porch. “Oh, those are from Ferd,” Mom said. “He always does that.”
As I stood in my friend’s office sharing that story, I thought about the gifts of the Spirit. While Coke has definitely been a gift to Atlanta (and to the world!), I wonder if Mom and Dad’s friend Ferd ever realized that his simple gift was an expression of the Holy Spirit. While most of us think of healing or prophecy or discernment or tongues, often it is the simple, daily acts of kindness and compassion that are “manifestations of the Spirit for the common good.”