Surprised by kindness
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Editor,
Our grandson, Simon, begins college soon. He has just completed a very busy summer with a well-paying job, plus he had a summer study program in preparation for college. He also purchased his first vehicle this summer, a small vintage pickup. He and another guy heading for college had made plans to enroll in a short intense course offered at World View Academy in Giddings, Texas, more than a thousand miles from home.
They planned to travel and live in the pickup. It needed some work on the front brakes and a couple of engine gaskets were leaking oil badly and required replacement. They did most of the work themselves. After taking the truck on a test drive to check the brakes, they realized that they needed to have the vibration and growling sound in the universal joint checked. It too had to be repaired. They were working day and night on the truck and nearly out of time to make the three-day drive to Texas. A neighbor friend who had some mechanical training stopped by to check their work the day the guys were supposed to be on their way. He concluded that the truck’s differential would not survive a trip to Texas. They were already a day behind their travel plans.
Our daughter had invited a family friend, who had employed Simon, to join them for dinner that evening. He asked if he could bring along a friend he wanted them to meet. Surprise, surprise, the guys were still home, and their truck still needing repair. The dinner conversation centered on the fact that there seemed to be no alternate transportation available. Then the stranger who had come to dinner said, quietly and without hesitation, “Take my truck” (full size and much, much newer). They did.
Hearing their story, I thought to myself, had I been the stranger would I have offered my truck? Lord, make me more like the stranger, kind and generous.
Harvey A. Town
Polson
