What Goes Around,Comes Around.
Posted by: bigguyhereagain <bigguyhereagain@...>
~~~~~~~~
~~~What Goes Around,Comes Around.~~~
He almost didn't see the old lady, stranded on the side of the road. But
even in the dim light of day, he could See she needed help. So he pulled
up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering
when he approached her. Even with the smile on his face, she was worried.
No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so was he going to hurt
her?
He didn't look safe, he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was
frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was
that chill which only fear can put in you.
He said, "I'm here to help you ma'am. Why don't you wait in the car where
it's warm? By the way, my name is Bryan." Well, all she had was a flat
tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough.
Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning
his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire. But he
had to get dirty and his hands hurt.
As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began
to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only
just passing through. She couldn't thank him enough for coming to her
aid. Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. She asked him how much she
owed him. Any amount would have been all right with her. She already
imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped.
Bryan never thought twice about the money. This was not a job to him.
This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty who had
given him a hand in the past. He had lived his whole life that way, and
it never occurred to him to act any other way.
He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she
saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance
they needed, and Bryan added, "...and think of me".
He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and
depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into
the twilight.
A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab
a bite to eat, and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her
trip home. It was a dingy looking restaurant.
Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her.
The cash register was like the telephone of an out-of-work actor it didn't
ring much.
Her waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair.
She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day
couldn't erase. The lady noticed the waitress was nearly eight months
pregnant, but she never let the strain and aches change her attitude.
The old lady wondered how someone who Had so little could be so giving to
a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan.
After the lady finished her meal, and the waitress went to get change for
her hundred Dollar bill, the lady slipped right out the door. She was
gone by the time the waitress came back. The waitress wondered where the
lady could be, then she noticed something written on the napkin under
which was four $100 bills.
There were tears in her eyes when she read what the lady wrote:
"You don't owe me anything, I have been there too. Somebody once
helped me out, the way I'm helping you. If you really want to pay me back,
here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you".
A Friend
Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to
serve, but the waitress made it through another day.
That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was
thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could the
lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due
next month, it was going to be hard. She knew how worried her husband
was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and
whispered soft and low, "Everything's gonna be all right; I love you,
Bryan."
There is an old saying "What goes around comes around". Today, I send you
this story, and I'm asking you to pass it on... Let this light shine.
Sometimes we are so busy adding up our troubles, that we forget to count
our blessings.
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~~~ New Life ~~~
It was snowing in the cold Pennsylvania pre-dawn as Caryl Baum's limousine
made its way to the airport for her flight. She was going to her goddaughter
Kelly's funeral in Tallahassee. The girl, whose heart had unexpectedly
stopped after jogging, had been only 22, and Caryl was inconsolable at the
loss. Somehow she would have to be strong for Kelly's parents, to carry
some sort of message of hope. "During the drive I prayed that God would
inspire me," she says.
As Caryl stepped from the car in front of the terminal, two gorgeous white
doves suddenly flew out of the snowy sky, directly toward her. "They
swooped down in front of me, then soared up into the air and disappeared
into the snow," Caryl recalls. "I felt it had to be some kind of sign,
since I had never seen doves in winter. I thanked God, and felt a rush of
warmth through me."
After she arrived in Tallahassee, Caryl tried to tell Kelly's distraught
parents about the doves, and their untimely appearance. They could barely
concentrate. "I'm not sure they believed me, and of course it could have
just been a coincidence," she says.
The service began, and those in attendance mourned deeply. How could anyone
find something hopeful in this situation? But as the mourners were coming
out of the church behind the ministers and the casket, someone cried,
"Look!" Another pair of snow-white doves appeared. This time, they glided
up off the grass into the sky, swooped back down in front of everyone, then
circled up and over the casket. "They were so close, we could feel the air
from their wings on our cheeks," Caryl says.
Everyone stood there, astonished. "Were those birds--or angels?" one man
asked.
"I have never felt such heavenly energy," the minister added. Kelly's
parents smiled through their tears. Doves, they knew, were a promise of new
life.
Caryl felt graced. It was just a little sign, she knew. But God had cared
enough to send it not just once, for her, but again, thousands of miles away
for the whole congregation.
< < < < < < < < < < < < < <
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~~~ Healed and Whole ~~~
One day I dug a little hole
and put my hurt inside
I thought that I could just forget
I'd put it there to hide.
But that little hurt began to grow
I covered it every day
I couldn't leave it and go on
It seemed the price I had to pay.
My joy was gone, my heart was sad
Pain was all I knew.
My wounded soul enveloped me
Loving seemed too hard to do.
One day, while standing by my hole
I cried to God above
And said, "If You are really there --
They say, You're a God of love!"
And just like that -- He was right there
And just put His arms around me
He wiped my tears, His hurting child
There was no safer place to be.
I told Him all about my hurt
I opened up my heart
He listened to each and every word
To every sordid part.
I dug down deep and got my hurt
I brushed the dirt away
And placed it in the Master's hand
And healing came that day.
He took the blackness of my soul
And set my spirit FREE!
Something beautiful began to grow
Where the hurt used to be.
And when I look at what has grown
Out of my tears and pain
I remember every day to give my hurts to Him
And never bury them again.
Have a Blessed Day
Dave and Barbara
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