His Hands & Feet

".....whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me."
Matthew 25:40

We're supposed to be the hands and feet of Jesus.  We are to walk on this earth, letting Him work through us, in whatever capacity that may be.  Each given day could mean a very different task and you never know where and when Jesus is going to speak to your heart and ask you to serve.  The trick is being open enough, aware enough, and accepting enough to say yes.

I had such an incident today.

After a busy morning and taking longer to get home than I'd hoped, I turned off the main hwy leading to home.  As I slowed down to make my turn, I rode past a woman and a small child walking on the side of the road.  Out in the middle of no-where, such as they were, this was not a normal sight.  I scanned all around me, looking for a broken down vehicle, but saw nothing.  I began to squirm in my seat, but continued my turn.  I didn't get a 100 yards away when I felt a very distinct prompting.

Jesus: "Turn back, make sure they are okay."

Me:  "What?  Are you sure?  Might I remind you that picking up strangers isn't a very safe thing to do?"

Jesus: "I'm here with you.  You have to go back and make sure.  Can't you see she's out of place?  She needs you right now."

So, with a deep sigh, I turned my vehicle around, crept back slowly towards the corner.  I parked my car, got out and walked in her direction as she walked along the edge of the highway, holding the hand of that sweet baby girl of about 3 years of age.  Both wore baseball caps, obviously to block what they could of the sun from their heads of dark hair.

I hollered out to her, "are you ok!"

Wind blowing..."mumbles..."

I walked closer and saw that they were very clean.  Clothes clean.  Faces clean.  My mind was reeling and trying to imagine what on earth would have them walking out here.  Can I say it again?  I live near to the middle of no-where.

Close enough now to reach out and touch them I ask again, "are you ok?"

In very broken English she tells me this, "yes, we are okay....but I need a ride...to skeedmare..."

"Skidmore?" I ask.

"Yes, Skidmore," she says...still holding the hand of the little girl who looked up at me with huge brown eyes.  Her hair was sweaty all around her brown line, at least the parts the peeked out from under the cap.

"I can give you a ride.  Come.  Follow me to the car."

"Oh, ma'am...thank you so much for the ride."

I asked her name, and she said, "my name is Anna."

Her story?  Nothing extremely complicated.  Through her VERY broken English I was able to sort of understand that her vehicle had broken down the day before and her husband was going to fix it today.  Her son, fifteen years old, had gotten in trouble at school.  Seven boys had ganged up on him.  She'd called her niece for a ride and she kept telling her she would be there in "twenty minutes, twenty minutes, twenty minutes."   She had asked the principal to get someone who could speak Spanish to talk to her because she didn't understand what had happened, but he hadn't done that for her.  Her son was in trouble, she was confused and worried, and she needed a ride to his school.

After a few moments of silence she asked me, "Ma'am?  Are you a Christian?"  I told her yes and the tears came from the corners of her eyes.  "I prayed for God to help me and you came along to give a ride.  Thank you so very much."  My eyes moistened at the emotion on her face.

I stopped at the school and as she climbed out of the car she said, "bye, boy!" to my sweet Caleb and the little girl who hadn't uttered a sound the whole way, but did push the lock/unlock button for the car a few times, copied her mama and said, "bye, boy!"

As I said - - you never know when Jesus will ask you to step up.  The question is, when the time comes, will you be willing?  I can probably count on one hand the number of times I have picked up a stranger to give them a ride.  I'm very cautious in those instances.  Very fearful actually.   I'm not sure I can even count the number of times I've driven right on by.  I can say in those times I did drive on by, I did not feel the prompting of the Holy Spirit in the way I did today.

Anna and her little girl touched my heart today....It was a reminder of just how much we love our babies whether they are grown up or still little one's.  This mother loved her son enough that she was willing to walk 9 miles to get to him to make sure he was okay.  And take a little girl with her on the journey.  Why was I delayed today on my trip home?  I believe with all my heart that God wanted me to be passing by at 1:30 in the afternoon - - to be His hands and feet - - and help Anna.

In His PRECIOUS and HOLY Name....