Sometimes we wonder why we have to do something we don't want to do. And then,
we find out...
Like the Saturday night I decided to get a haircut. Saturdays
are typically ‘date night’ for my husband and me, so it broke routine. But something kept nagging me to get a haircut that day. Finally, late afternoon, I dialed the salon.
“They’re probably closed,” I thought. But the receptionist said
they could take me if I came right away….
……………..
Simultaneously, a hefty woman, with unkempt, dark curly hair,
stepped outside her tenement, looked to the heavens and heaved a great sigh. She
began shifting one foot in front of the other, laboring her way past sub-shops,
clothing stores and restaurants. Cars, trucks and buses dashed by, oblivious
to the lone, lumbering figure. When she finally stopped to rest at a roadside
bench, shoppers zipped by without a smile or kind word.
Odd, what she needed the most surrounded her, but she had no
way to get it. She was hungry, but she had no food. There was a grocery, but
she had no money. She’d walked a long way from home, but she didn’t have the
strength to return.
Finally, dejected and weary, she sat on a bench outside the
salon, placed her head in her hands and surrendered to the tears. “Please
Jesus,” she prayed, “Please send someone to help me.”
------------------------------
I pulled my van alongside the curb, threw the gearshift in
park, exited, and raced inside the salon. In passing, I spotted the woman
sitting on the bench, but I dismissed her.
My stylist scrubbed my hair and clipped the strands, rattling
incessantly about a recent movie she saw. When I finally left, the first brushes
of nighttime blanketed the street.
I fetched my keys and stepped off the curb when someone
approached. It was the hefty woman with shabby, dark curly hair.
“Excuse me, ma’am,” she said, stepping into the light. “Can
you help me?”
I bristled, but something told me not to fear.
“What do you need?” I asked.
“I don’t have any food,” she said. As she explained her
plight, I knew I could help.
“Hop in the car,” I said. “We can go to the grocery store across
the street.”
She climbed into my van.
“I knew God would send someone to help me,” she said. “And when I saw you walking into the hair-cutting place,
I knew you were my angel.”
We started talking. She told me she became a Christian as a teen, and that God
always met her needs in desperate situations, like this one. She admitted she didn’t
really know where she was going when she started walking that evening and I confessed
the salon wasn’t my normal Saturday night stop.
As our stories unraveled, I sensed her faith and it seemed a privilege to help her.
Although I’ll probably never see her again, I’ll never forget our encounter, her devotion, and the wonder of a God who brought us
together.
Continue to be kind to strangers, for some who have done this have
entertained angels without even knowing it. (Hebrews 13:2)
