This is a story I wrote years ago for our church newsletter, and I thought I would put it on here. This story is completely true, I witnessed it, when I wrote it I cried, and still can not read through it without crying. I don't really know why it touched me so deeply, except to say I had small children myself at the time and it made me wonder what I would have done if I had been in the same circumstances as the woman in the story.
I went into a supermarket in a nearby town several years ago to do some grocery shopping. After we were checked out we were standing by the door waiting for Bob to pick us up. The kids were buying trinkets out of the machines by the door when I noticed a young woman come in the door with two little children, both I guessed were under the age of five.
In her hand she held an old, dirty quart paper milk carton. It was a carton that had held one of the more expensive brands of chocolate milk. It looked like she had gotten it out of a trash can. It looked like it had been flattened; it was dirty and ragged around the edges. She just stood there by the checkout counters, seemingly unsure of what to do.
Of course I was curious about her, and was watching her. My kids think I am way too nosy because I like to watch people. I do like to watch people, just because I am nosy, I guess. It seems my kids are right.
Anyway, the owner of the supermarket was standing close by, and he came over to where she was and asked if he could help with something. She held out that old milk carton and she told the owner that when she had opened it, the milk was spoiled, and she was wondering if she could get it replaced?
When she said that, I cringed inside. Didn't she know that she was talking to the owner? Didn't she know that he could plainly see that the milk carton had been dug out of a trash barrel somewhere? Didn't she know that he would tell her that he knew she was lying and to leave, that it wasn't his problem?
I should have turned away or went outside, because I knew the owner was going to let her have it any second, and I was embarrassed for her, both because she was going to be humiliated, and because I knew her kids were probably hungry or she wouldn't have tried to do what she was doing. I knew it wasn't right to lie, but I thought, that was pretty easy for me to think, standing there with a grocery cart full of groceries, and a full stomach.
Well, of course, I didn't leave, I couldn't seem to stop watching what was about to happen.
The owner held out his hand for the carton and she handed it to him. He turned it around and around, looking it over. Then he laid the carton down, put his hand on his elbow and the other hand under his chin, and looked at her and her children standing there, and then he did let her have it.
With a look on his face I can only describe as gentle, he said, "Go on back to the milk section and get a replacement for this carton of milk".
She took her two children and they hurried to the back of the store. When they came back she was holding two pint cartons of white milk and a small bottle of orange juice. She asked the owner if it would be all right if she got the white milk and orange juice instead of the chocolate milk, they equaled about the same amount of money. The owner told her that would be fine, so she thanked him and she and her children left.
I know that during this whole exchange my mouth must have been hanging open. I knew this man and he had always been nice and polite to me, but I had heard other people say that maybe he wasn't like this all of the time. So I guess it surprised me that he had done this.
Well, since I witnessed this event, I have learned a few things. I have learned you shouldn't judge people one way or another, because you never know their circumstances or their heart all of the time and you surely don't know what makes a person do some of the things he or she does.
I realized that the owner may not have been the nicest he could have been all the time, who among any of us are? But that day I saw him act in a way that I believe Jesus would want us to, for the Bible tells us this:
For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat; I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink; I was a stranger, and ye took me in; naked, and ye clothed me; I was sick, and ye visited me; I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink? When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me. (Matthew 25:3-40
I learned something else very important that day too, I was not as nice as I could have been while I was standing there judging others and guessing what the outcome would be. As I said earlier in the story, I was standing there with a full cart of groceries, how I have looked back on that scene and wished I had given them something to eat that day.
There are people that would judge the woman harshly and ask why she didn't get a job and provide for her children herself. I can only say that nobody should judge someone else. The old saying about walking a mile in someone else's shoes might apply, but as a woman told me one time, "You can walk a mile in my shoes and still not react the same way I might", and as I have thought about it I have realized what she said is true. We just should NOT JUDGE. PERIOD. Just love.
We can't go back and change things that have already happened, but we can look forward and try to remember to do as Jesus would have us to. I pray that myself and each one of us will act as Jesus would have us to, so that when we are someday held in account for what we have done or not done, Jesus will look at us and say "Well done, thou good and faithful servant".
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