A Kind Stranger

I've had three or four blog ideas go through my mind in the past couple of days, and they were all good ones too. It would be nice if I could remember them.

But anyway, since I can't, I'll just talk about something really nice that happened today, which reminded me why I love people!

A few weeks ago, I was standing at an intersection downtown, inviting people to talk with me about abortion in order to hopefully show people what it is and why it's wrong, and this older gentleman came riding along on his bike.

I asked him what he thought about abortion and handed him a pamphlet, and he stopped and smiled at me. He took the pamphlet and smiled at it, then smiled at me again, then smiled at the pamphlet again, and then back at me.

"Well clearly you don't speak English," I thought to myself, as I smiled back and let him ride away.

About half an hour later I met him again inside Tim Hortons, he recognized me so he asked, "Coffee?" "No thank you," I replied. "Why not?" "Well...umm...." I have had it firmly engrained in me that you don't accept treats from strangers since I was a small child, so I said the first excuse that came to mind. "I'm leaving soon."

It was true. I was on my way in the next five minutes.

Well today, about two weeks later, who should I run into at the same Tim Hortons but the same nice gentleman? So again he walks over and says, "How are you? Coffee?"
"No thank you," I said instinctively.
But when he asked me this time "Why not?" I had no excuse! I couldn't think of anything! I was likely going to be sitting there for a while, so I wasn't leaving, but since I had nothing to say, he offered again that he was willing to buy it for me.
"Okay..." I sheepishly agreed. He brought me over to the counter and had me order, asked if my friend wanted anything, and offered a donut or muffin or whatever my heart desired. My heart was already quite full at that moment, feeling such gratitude to this kind man, that I needed nothing more than coffee.

I still don't know what he thinks about abortion, (although it certainly seems like he supports us) or how much English he speaks, or why exactly he keeps wanting to buy me coffee, but what I do know is that he cares about me. Which is such a lovely thing in a stranger. I wonder if this is how "the least of these" felt when they met Jesus.