"I think I will go to the place Joe told me about," my husband said as we drove around on some errands. "He said they have things like a lug wrench there," Howard went on. He had been keeping his eye out for a bargain in a lug wrench to keep in his truck, since we already had one for the car. My thrifty spouse was unwilling to pay a high price for the tool. His handyman friend, Joe, knew all the second-hand and junk shops in town.
"Oh, look!" I said, "There's Joe now." We were going past a mission for the poor and disadvantaged, and there he was, lifting his bike from a truck. I asked Howard what he was going to do with it, and he said Joe was placing it somewhere for safekeeping while he went in to breakfast.
When we had completed our errands and had stopped for a bite of lunch, Howard decided to go to the aforementioned store. "Oh, there's Joe again!" I said, at seeing him get on his bike and leave the shop where we were going. He didn't see us with his head down, so we went on into the store.
"Do you happen to have a lug wrench?" Howard asked the proprietor.
"I had one, but I just sold it!" he replied. Immediately I surmised what had happened.
"Did you sell it to an Indian guy?" I asked, "The man that just left the store?" He had, and I knew that Joe had bought it for Howard! Sure enough, we got a call shortly from Joe, saying he had bought the wrench and put it in the back of the truck at our house.
How thoughtful! We had been picking Joe up at a shelter and taking him to church, even getting him a burger afterward. I know he appreciated it, and this was his way of showing gratitude, even by spending some of his scarce resources.
Although there was no real comparison, it made me think of the widow's mite in the Bible or the alabaster box of precious ointment that was broken and poured out for Jesus.
Several times we have shared food with Joe, especially when he has been over here working at some odd job we needed done. When he helped Howard clean the basement recently, I noticed a comforter I had forgotten about stacked with some things they had brought up. I took it and put it on the washer, but Joe asked where it went. He said Howard had given it to him, because he only had one thin blanket at the shelter. Of course, I was glad for him to have it.
Jesus said as recorded in Matthew 25:40, "In as much as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." I believe Joe was practicing the instructions of Jesus when he said to do unto others as you would have others do to you, in Matthew 7:12 and Luke 6:31. (I also noticed that verse 30 of Matthew says, "Give to every man that asketh of thee; and of him that taketh away thy goods ask them not again.") I won't be asking for my comforter back!
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