Monday, February 27, 2006

Dollar

After school I took my son to 7-11 to get an Icee. As I waited in the car I noticed a women going car to car. She came to me and asked me if I would give her a dollar to buy gas with. I told her I would, to bring her car to the pump and I would go inside and pay. The car was old and dirty and driven by a man. I paid and as I returned to my vehicle they waved in appreciation. I felt good and of course spiritually superior to all those other people in the parking lot who had refused them. Driving away I remembered the verse in Matthew 25: 40 where Jesus said “whatever you did for the least of these brothers of mine, you did it for me.” My heart sank. Jesus had come to my car window and I had given him a dollar. These people were worth so much more than a dollar. They are of infinite worth. If they were asking for money for gas then they probably needed food also. God has blessed me and my family with more than we need. We are not to hoard what he gives us but to share. It’s not my money anyway it’s his. I should have filled their tank up and brought them into the store and bought them food, but no, I was too busy feeling spiritually superior. I then remembered Jesus parable about the Good Samaritan in Luke chapter 10. I behaved more like the uncaring priest and Levite than I did the Samaritan. Like them I was spiritually smug. I went home told my wife and she suggested that I go back and see if they were still there. They were not so I drove to other gas stations in the area to see if I could find them. The search was unsuccessful but the lesson was learned. I have a long way to go to be the person God intends for me to be, and a good beginning is to care more for others.

1 comment:

Kim from Hiraeth said...

Oh. I have been there Gary, though in different circumstances.

Praise God for the Spirit within Who convicts us of our sin and brings us to confession and repentence. Who could stand before Him without the Son's raiments and the Spirit's help?

Now to him who is able to keep you from stumbling and to present you blameless before the presence of his glory with great joy, to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory, majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen.