The other day, I came across a teenage mother in the parking lot of Walmart.  Her beautiful toddler was asleep in her arms and her luggage was piled on the small median where she sat.  When she was still in the same spot when I returned to my car, I was literally “moved” to ask her if she was waiting for someone.  She had not asked me for anything.  However, she needed help with a transportation issue and not a small one. 

She needed to buy an Amtrak ticket to get back to Philadelphia PA.  She had been told there was a bus at Walmart that would take her to the Amtrak station.  She had money but not the ability to do what was necessary to accomplish her goal.  I took her to my house, fed her a sandwich and let the baby finish her nap on a bed. 

Then I got on the computer and figured out how to buy her a ticket and printed it out for her.  She paid me for the ticket.  It took all the money that she had.  When I left her at the Ocala train station to wait for the bus which would take her to Jacksonville and the train to Philly, I gave her money to buy food for the 20-hour trip home.  I gave her a blanket to keep them warm on the train.  Rich gave the baby a little teddy bear to cuddle.

Her story was complicated and irrelevant to the actions that I took.  I tell the story because I believe that the Holy Spirit moved me to stop and talk with Andrea.  I believe that God guides me on this path and protects me.  I will never know, if my actions made a lasting impression on this needy young woman, but I do know that I did God’s will when I decided to ask the question, “Are you waiting for someone?”  Yes, she was waiting for me.

And, because I know that God loves her unconditionally and me unconditionally and you unconditionally, I can attempt in my own fumbling human way to try and love others to the best of my ability.  We are all beggars at the feast of God’s grace banquet.  He doesn’t ask us why we need it, He just fills us to the brim.

Terri