I stood in line at the supermarket with my lonely frozen pizza in hand. As I placed my pizza on the conveyer and waited my turn, the elderly woman in front of me was inputting her PIN into the pinpad and the cashier was counting a series of pennies on the counter. “I can take 22 cents off,” she says, as she finishes counting the coins. “You’re not going to have enough,” she states next as I see the elderly woman has handed her an ATM slip with her bank account balance. It hits me with hurricane force that between the pennies on the counter and the balance in her bank, she can’t pay for her grocery bill. Then I look up and see her grocery bill is $8.80 and consists of toilet paper and milk. $8.80. Toilet paper and milk. That’s it. “Which would you like to leave? The milk?” “Yes, the milk,” she says, as my heart tears into jagged pieces and the cashier voids the item. My mind was racing about how unfair it was for this woman to choose between those two necessary items.
What is this woman’s story? Where is her community? Where are the people who love and care for her and make sure she has toilet paper and milk in her home – even if she can’t afford it? This woman could be a horrible person who steals and spends her money on terrible things, I don’t know. The point was, at that very moment she was in need of help. Plainly put, I’m a stranger in a store, she doesn’t know me from Eve, and I’m one of the three people witnessing this woman’s financial shortfall, grocery bagger and cashier included. And the realization was – her community was me. I harp on all day about building community, growing hope and supporting change. Here was an opportunity to do perhaps all three.
“I’ll pay for your milk,” I said as I stepped to where her and the cashier could hear me. She didn’t insist otherwise, but instead asked if I was sure, and then thanked me repeatedly. I handed the cashier a $5 bill to cover the cost of the milk and then a bit more. $3.80 was the woman’s new total, and as she continued thanking me, her last words before leaving were “may God bless you.”
Little did she know He already had.
Thank you for doing what you did. This is a difficult thing to witness and even more difficult to live when you are like this older woman. God sees your kindness and will bless you. Let's pray more and more people will reach out and help the people in our community. A little act of kindness can go a long way, we all have something we can do.
ReplyDeleteThat's such an amazing story. Sometimes changing one person's situation is a huge step in changing the world! It makes me more aware that there are more things I should be doing out there to help people.
ReplyDeleteI like your point about how we are the community.
ReplyDeleteSo many times we see things and take ourselves out of the equation. Where is this person's family, friends, community, assistance...etc. We don't see ourselves as part of that. We've lost the bigger sense of "community" that actually includes total strangers.
"may God bless you," Isn't that the most beautiful thing to hear when you show Christ's compassion. Good Sarah you didn't let that opportunity go.
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