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#101368 December 15th, 2004 at 08:27 PM
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I loved this story when I read it and wanted to share.......
The Timeless Gift
By Harrison Kelly
Shopping for a Christmas gift can be the most nerve-wracking event of the year. Shopping for my wife can be a special challenge. Vacuum cleaners are too impersonal, football tickets are too impractical, and kitchen gadgets are downright impossible. I was at a loss, with Christmas fast approaching. In desperation, I asked my secretary, Sally, to help me pick out a present.
We walked side by side in a fast-paced walk, two blocks to the jewelry store. Working in the downtown business district had its advantages; being close to a lot of shopping places was one of them. However, there were disadvantages as well. On the way, our path crossed a couple of homeless men, huddled together by a vent from one of the nearby buildings.
I started to cross the street to avoid them, but traffic was too thick. Just before we approached, I switched sides with Sally to keep them from confronting her. They were surely going to beg for money, pretending to buy food, but any donation would surely end up as beer or wine.
As we got closer, I could see that one was probably in his mid-thirties and the other was a boy of school age - around thirteen or fourteen. Both were dressed shabbily, the older with a too-tight sport coat ripped at the sleeve, while the boy was without a coat at all, only a tattered shirt separating him from the blowing wind. A quarter or two and they'll leave us alone, I thought. "I'll handle this," I said with my best male bravado.
But Sally seemed undisturbed by the sight of the two beggars. In fact, she seemed comfortable in their presence. Before they asked, she offered.
"Is there anything I can do for you?" she directed her question to the two homeless men. I was in shock, waiting to pull Sally away from a dangerous situation, but she stood firm.
The two men looked at her with surprise until the older one spoke up. "Yes, ma'am. We do need something."
Here it comes - the hook, the gouge, I thought. The two panhandlers are looking for a handout, an easy mark. As I watched, I could tell the younger boy was shivering in the winter breeze, but what could I do?
"Could you tell us the time?" asked the older man. Sally glanced at her watch and replied, "Twelve-fifteen." He nodded his thanks and didn't say another word. We continued on our way to the jewelry store, and I had to ask Sally about the encounter.
"Why did you ask if you could help that man?"
"He was cold and in need, that's why," she replied in a matter-of-fact tone.
"But he's a bum. He could have tried to rob you or something."
"I take care of myself. But sometimes you have to take a chance on someone."
We arrived at the jewelry store, and Sally quickly found the perfect gift for my wife - a pair of diamond earrings. While she was there, she bought a man's watch, not an expensive one, but she was always thrifty. Probably a gift for her husband, I thought.
As we walked back to our building, the two vagabonds were still hovering around the sidewalk grate. Once again, I tried to come between Sally and the two, but she wouldn't let me. To my surprise, when we got next to them, she pulled the watch out of the bag and handed it to the older man.
"Here, I'm sure you know how to use it."
He was as shocked as I was. "Thank you, much obliged, ma'am," he said, trying the watch on his wrist. As we walked away, Sally had a gleam in her eyes, proud of what she had done.
"Why on Earth did you do that?"
Sally shrugged and said, "God has been so good to me, and I decided to do something good for him."
"But he didn't deserve it."
"Even the poor want something special, and besides, God's done things for me that I don't deserve - but He did them anyway."
"He's probably going to buy beer with that watch."
Sally just smiled at me and said, "Well, so what if he does? That's not my concern. I did something for good and that's all that matters. What he does with the watch is his challenge."
We arrived back at our building and went into our separate offices. I wondered about the encounter, and I thought about the two men. Surely they were at the pawnshop, getting ready for a hot time at Sally's expense.
The next day, I was going to lunch alone at a hamburger stand outside our building. As I walked down the street, I noticed the same two men that Sally and I had encountered. They were both still hovering around the heater vent. The older man recognized me and said, "Excuse me, sir. Could you give me the time?"
Aha! I had caught him. Sally's watch was nowhere to be found. Exactly what I thought.
"Where is the watch my secretary gave you yesterday?" I asked, hoping to stir his heart.
He hung his head down and admitted his guilt. "Sir, I'm sorry but I had to do something." It was then I noticed the new parka around the shoulders of his young companion. "Wouldn't you do something for one of your own?"
Speechless, I handed him a quarter and continued on my way. As I walked, I started thinking about the incident. He had sold the watch all right, but he bought a coat, not beer, with the money. Sally's act of kindness did have meaning. So did her words: The challenge was answered.
As I arrived at the hamburger stand, I suddenly lost my appetite. I turned around and headed back to the office. The two men were still by the grate. I tapped the older man on the shoulder and he looked up at me, obviously freezing. I took my long, gray overcoat off and draped it over his shoulders without saying a word. As I walked away, I knew that my own challenge had been met. The few steps back to my office made my teeth chatter. But, you know...it was one of the warmest trips I have ever made in my life.

#101369 December 15th, 2004 at 09:50 PM
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wow! fantastic story! i love reading stories like that. now only if more people in this world could change and see homeless people the way that those people did. thanks for posting that! kissies

#101370 December 15th, 2004 at 10:19 PM
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That's a lovely story!
You know, out here in LA, you get so used to seeing homeless people, and totally tuning them out, or looking away, it makes you start to feel either really bad about yourself or really cynical about them. When people ask me for money, if I can afford it, I tell them I won't give them money, but I'll buy them food if they want. Often, they don't take you up on it. But there was this one man once that I saw twice in the same week at the little shopping area by my apartment. The first night, he asked me for money, and I said no, but I'll buy you food, and pointed to the Mexican restaurant there. He said thanks, and could he have the taco and enchilada dinner and a coffee? So I got it and gave it to him, and went on my way. About a week later, he was outside the convenience store with his sign when I went in. I bought a loaf of bread and some peanut butter, canned ham, fruit and some milk, and passed him the bag on my way out. He was eating by the time I got in the car. So one night, probably about a year later, it was dark and I was walking home, and I could hear someone behind me, hurrying ot catch up. A man's voice says, "Excuse me!" and I turn around, a little creeped out because it's dark and there's no one on the street, and I'm a woman. It's the same man. He says, "I'm sorry, but aren't you the lady who bought me food a while back?" I said yeah, expecting to be asked again, but he just said, "I just wanted to say thank you again." And he turned and walked away.
Every tiny little act of kindness counts, and every one of those people we see on the street is someone's son or daughter or sister or brother. And there, but for the grace of God, go I.
Thank yo for posting that story.

#101371 December 15th, 2004 at 11:07 PM
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Heartwarming story!!! And Geegee I think what you did was very sweet---many people wouldn't even offer a thing.... kissies

#101372 December 15th, 2004 at 11:32 PM
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Wow, those two stories are so beautiful! We are innundated daily with negative stories from around the world that often leaves us thinking that's all their is. Why don't we start a place on the forum that can be a refuge from all that - a place where we only post true, positive, heartwarming stories either from our own experiences or elsewhere? Would that be okay, Bill? Hostesses?

#101373 December 16th, 2004 at 12:23 AM
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**Sporty,
What a story!!!
I sooooooo believe in that, do something nice for someone, is such a nice thing to do, and it's the right thing to do...
And if just one person did that to one person, there would be so many helped..
It just takes a wee~bit of our time,
and the way I like to look at it is, I maybe in that predicament someday, and I would so hope that someone would help me....just a tiny bit..
It takes so little effort to really help..
And if you can only help one person, then that's the one you need to help, you can't help everyone, and you have to know that, but if everyone helped everyone, they'd all be taken care of!!!

Thank~You for posting that story!!!

****Cricket,
Also, I started a little post on ~Words of FAITH~
Most are emails that were sent to me...
I add to it every~so~often and feel free to post anything there....

****Sporty and ****GG,
I would love you two to also re~post those stories on that post if you would for me....

Weezie

#101374 December 16th, 2004 at 12:37 AM
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I was sitting here at work with tears in my eyes as I read the one I posted and again when geebeebrr wrote hers. When I was in Sturgis a couple of years ago for bike week I went to the grocery store to make some purchase. This older gent in front of me had some bread, lunch meat, a treat for the little girl that was with him and some cat food. Well, he didn't have enough money to pay for everything so he opted to get the treat and the cat food. I caught the clerks eye and signaled that I would pay for the rest of it. She bagged all of his stuff and told the guy that it had been taken care of. He had a tear in his eye when he walked out and so did I. I felt so good after doing this.
This year I am doing the Angle tree and making a gift to the Animal Shelter. Sadly, we (including me) only think of these charities during the holiday season.
I am tearing up again so I have to go.....

#101375 December 16th, 2004 at 01:56 AM
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We give little bits here and there thru the year.
When we do the Bible School tours in the summer time, they do a food pantry drive, and there's no fee for the kids to come to VBS, but just to bring a bag of food for the pantry..
We also do a food drive for The Boyscouts.
One weekend we leave bags on people's doors with notes on them that the boyscouts will be back next week end to bag up some food, and leave it on the front porch or door stoop...and we come thru and pick it up and deliver to the churches..
(for the pantry)
And we go to a Church Basketball program and they also don't charge anything, just bring in weekly donations to the food pantry again.
And we just a Gingerbread House making party and pay a couple bucks for a preformed house and bring candy and then again, some food for the pantry..
And The Church Christmas pagent, that's just food donations too...

And at my wee~one's story hour class at school they do the same thing for the pantry too,
she did it really cute, every week it was a theme, instead of bringing in one big bag once, she had them bring in one week peanut butter and jelly, the next week a can of spaghetti sauce and some dry spaghetti noodles, and the next week, gravy and noodles, and holiday week it was holiday side fixin's like cranberry sauce, stuffing, yams, etc.
It was fun for the kids to bring in something every week and it also helps the kids to learn to give some things away to those who might not nessessarily have extra stuff.

I'm always pickin' up something every week to stock pile and keep on my shelves for when they come around...

Weezie

#101376 December 16th, 2004 at 05:08 PM
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We participate in the Boy Scout and School drives. The postal service also holds a food drive and the local Publix supermarkets have bags of groceries with receipts attached and you select the one that fits your pocket.

My kids really love to participate and usually end up adding more to the bags before taking them in thumbup

I keep extra fresh fruit on hand at all times because alot of the neighborhood children get nothing but junk and always ask if they may have some when they are here. On Wednesdays I usually feed quite a few extras...the local church picks up the neighborhood children at my house for the weekly childrens program. It would shock you to know how many parents will send their kids off hours before the pickup time with no food in their bellys. I always make a big pot of spaghetti and have fruit for dessert. It's not much, but I hope I am making a difference in a childs life.

G-Mom grinnnn

#101377 December 16th, 2004 at 10:03 PM
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Sporty, that's a nice story. I'm so glad that you helped him. Isn't it funny how often those who don't even have enough to help themselves are so willing to give to others, like the old man buying cat food and the treat for the little girl. Bless his heart, and bless yours too. smile

Weezie and G-mom, you guys do a lot! If only the world were filled with people like you!

I try to do the canned goods the mailman picks up when I know it's happening, and I always do toys for tots, but I should do more.

G-mom, you'll be interested in this- I read an article about a coupon queen. Not only was she so good that she only spent a few bucks a week on her own groceries, but she also kept all the coupons she didn't use, and whenever she found anything that she could get really cheap with the coupons, she'd buy it and give it to a charity. Canned goods, pet food, anything. I always thought, that's such a great idea. If only there were more time...


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