Paying Back and Paying Forward

Just when you think kindness is going the way of the dodo bird (becoming extinct), you hear a story like this one. Thank heavens – hope lives!

A couple days ago, as soon as the sun came up, my cousin Howard (age 72) spent four hours working in his vegetable garden in north Florida until the blistering heat chased him inside. He needed a few groceries for lunch so he hopped in his car still wearing his oldest work clothes – ripped jeans, ratty torn tee shirt, and dilapidated garden shoes, all severely defaced with black dirt. Having lost some weight recently, everything hung off of him. He didn’t even take time to comb his hair (what little is left of it) so it was frizzed out like a chia pet.

When Howard arrived, he caught his reflection in the grocery store glass door and suddenly realized his mistake in not cleaning up first, but being already there, he trudged inside anyway, “bent over like an old man” (his words, not mine).

Howard likes to pay in cash (a trait shared with many of my mama’s people) and knowing he only had $20 in his pocket, tried to tally the total in his head as he shopped, so not to exceed his limit. But when he reached the check-out, he was told the total was $21.53 so, feeling rather foolish, he asked the cashier to put back the bag of chips. A voice piped up in Spanish (which Howard doesn’t speak) from a stranger in line behind him, who began fishing around in his wallet and handed the cashier $2, gesturing at Howard’s chips. The man looked almost as bedraggled as Howard did. Howard protested, but the man insisted on paying for the chips.

Howard, who is a Christ-follower, and honest as the day is long, remembered that he sometimes had loose change in his glove compartment, so he rushed to his car and grabbed all he could find, which was a whopping 30 cents, then hurried back to the exit where the kind stranger was just leaving. Howard insisted that the man take the coins and thanked him again profusely. Then the man reached forward to shake hands and Howard felt something paper-y being pressed into his palm. He assumed the kind man was slipping him a dollar. Howard knew it would be pointless to argue so he gratefully nodded and asked God to bless the man, although he didn’t know if the guy understood him or not.

Then both men went their separate ways smiling, each the better for their encounter.

When Howard got into his car, he found that the man had slipped him a $20 bill. He was stunned. And overwhelmed by the kindness of a total stranger. And I must say I am too.

Who’s to say if the man was paying this act of kindness back for an unexpected kindness he’d received, or paying it forward? Either way, he was paying and the currency he used was printed in the language of love.

Well, dear BFF (Blessed Friend Forever), have you ever received an unexpected blessing from a stranger? Or GIVEN an unexpected blessing to someone you didn’t know? We’d love to hear about it in the comments below. A BIG, squishy hug to you, my sister!