Hebrews 13:1-2 states, "Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have enterained angels unawares."
One of my favorite classes of the day is Bible with my 7th graders. I enjoy teaching them some new things as well as the well-known stories of the Bible. However, I go to my pastor often.....and the head Bible teacher too........when I have Bible questions. So, saying that, I understand that my angel stories may seem a little far-fetched for the average ear. However, I am as sure as I have ever been of my 4 experiences with humans who came into my presence for a short time who seemed to have never existed. They were just regular moments when I had a small window of opportunity to show kindness. My mom says that I've had 5 angel moments, but my memory of the experience other than the woman speaking several languages is vague. But I CAN tell of the four that I am 100% sure about.
In the 70's, I attended a Christian school about an hour away from where I lived. My mom taught and coached there, so we commuted the hour daily. We had to travel Paynes Prairie on I-75, and back then that was snake-inhabited. One day my mom had a flat tire just leaving Paynes Prairie heading towards Ocala. It was already late afternoon, and a man on a tractor was mowing the grass on the side of the interstate. He stopped, helped us with our dilemma, got back on the tractor and went on over the hill. He never said a word. We loaded back up, got back on the interstate, and got ready to wave at the tractor man. As you can probably guess, there was no tractor mowing. We believe that God protected us from harm that day.
In 84 or 85, our family was having Sunday dinner. Our doorbell rang, and my mom went to answer the door. Well, out here, the houses are so far apart, people don't walk from one house to the other---they drive. An old man with an accent was at the door and had an old bag or something like that. He asked for food. My dad wasn't too happy, but my mom made him a plate and told him that he would have to eat outside. He did. He sat under a tree, and ate the food. Of course we kept creeping up to the window to watch him because it was so bizarre. When he was finished, he brought the plate and glass up to our porch and began to walk backwards down our driveway to the road. Our driveway is lengthy, and he never stumbled. When he got to the road he turned around normal and started walking. And, as I'm sure you are wondering, we did go try to find him a few minutes later when we realized that we may have just have an opportunity to be kind to one of God's own. He was gone.
One of my favorite memories of working with Miss Hibbard at City Baptist was helping out with the Afternoon Program on Sundays. One Sunday in '97 we were in a dilemma. I forget if it was a banquet or what, but she sent me on a dead run to the Sav-a-Lot just down from the church to get whatever food we needed immediately. Back then there were only 2 registers in that store, and it was frustrating if you were in a long line. I was in a hurry, of course, and it was for Miss Hibbard---so I was even more anxious, so anxious that I became rude. This old woman in front of me made us wait because she didn't have enough money. Here I was in my suit tapping my shoe like I was some queen, angry on the inside at this person who had no money. I still remember how aggravated I was, and it was wrong. Finally, I just told her that I would give her the money she needed if she would just get out of the way. I paid for my stuff and she was standing outside and asked me for a ride. I told her no. She said, "Please." I was so mean and told her that she would have to sit in the back seat. She did. All the streets in that section of Hammond were one way (not sure if they still are), and so OF COURSE her house was inconvenient to get to. I caught her looking at me in the mirror and she spoke to me in some language that I didn't recognize. I didn't say anything. Then she spoke to me in Spanish. I said, "Lady, I only speak English." She told me that I looked spanish and thought that she would try me. She was so kind. I hate that I was mean. Then she told me that she spoke 5 languages. I still didn't say anything. So, by now, I was really late, so I just dropped her off at the end of the street so that I wouldn't have to drive around the block. She told me that her yellow house was only 4 or 5 houses down and that it wouldn't be a long walk. When I got back to City Baptist and dropped off the food, I began to feel really badly, and I went back. The street is only a stone's throw from the school anyway. The only yellow house on that street was boarded up. I knew that day that I had failed profusely when God had given me an opportunity to show kindness.
Today, as I pulled into CVS, I actually had to stop as an old black woman was crossing one side of the parking lot to the other. She almost looked lost, and she was leaning like she was looking to see if someone was in the 2 cars parked in the front. I parked, finished a text to my friend, and opened my car door. She was standing right by my car. Instead of being angry or scared, I actually felt tenderness for the old woman. She was in a long skirt and wore beautiful makeup. I'd put her at about 75 or 80. Her eyeshadow was exquisite, and her lipstick was orange like old-lady lipstick. But her eyes were twinkling and youthful. She actually had sparkling eyeliner which is very odd for an 80 year-old woman. She asked me for 2 specific items. I told her that I didn't have them but that I would buy them inside if she needed them. She only repeated her request and thanked me. She had an accent but I can't place the accent, I just know that she was very kind.
I remember passing a CVS worker outside the store as I went inside. I bought my 2 items and her 2 requested items and walked outside just a few minutes later to 4 cars but no black woman. I went to the sides of the store, and looked across the empty lot separating CVS and Dunkin Donuts thinking maybe she started walking down the hill to the houses on the next street. When I didn't see her, I walked back inside the store to see if she had come looking for me. Didn't see her inside, so I just chalked it up to the fact that maybe someone else had met her need. But something made me ask the CVS guy who was still outside if he had seen her. He said that he had never seen me talking to an old woman when I got out of my car which is impossible because he watched me walked in. I described her, and he said that he never saw that woman. I knew then. I just smiled and said, "Nevermind."
I don't think it was what I was buying her that makes me smile. I believe that I had an opportunity to show the love of Christ through something very small. Thankfully, I had the money to grant her request, and, praise the Lord, I was kind.
But you know, we have daily opportunities to be kind to people in our own homes, our classrooms, our churches, our offices, etc. It's a huge lesson for me. Mrs. Cowling used to tell us in college, "Why do we wait for company to come to bring out our China?" Our families and friends ought to be worth it to give them our "China days" every now and then--just BECAUSE.
