Well? What's Your Say?
Ruth Parkinson trudged heavily home, her slingbag drooping, and her spirit sucumbing as much as her weight is to gravity. She wiped her forehead off the cold sweat of the misty late afternoon. There were no old ladies strolling St. parker Street opoosite, no dogs waggling their tails, sniffing the lightposts before urinating obscenely on them.
She fumbled for the keys to her apartment's mailbox. She almost gave up, what's the use of opening the dreaded box anyway? All the letters she got were from people chasing frantically for loan payment and bills. Ruth pulled out the small silver key from one of her slingbag's compartments and glared at it. That, was the key to all her troubles in life.
She slotted the key into the keyhole labelled 0345 and turned the key. The lid flew open, and a few letters flew out and swept onto the floor. Ruth rolled her eyes, great. She picked one by one slowly, arching her already aching back over.
Until she came across one.
There was no stamp, no postmark, only her name and address. She casually tore the envelope apart and pulled out the crisp and neat letter and read it.
Dear Ruth:
I`m going to be in your neighborhood Saturday afternoon and I'd like to stop by for a visit.
Love Always, Jesus
A sense of warmth overwhelmed her first cynical and skeptical thoughts, she no longered cared about disbelief. Why, it was THE first real letter she got since she moved her months ago. This couldn't be real, and it was hardly fake. The words loomed over all her troubles and worries she had prioritise earlier. She felt guilty, not having remembered the Lord in her life. When was the last time she ever made time for church? She couldn't remember...
It's time to pay back. She didn't care if the letter was a skank, she wanted to be grateful to what she had lost. As she rushed up to her shabby apartment, suddenly, a thought burst through all her goodwill and motivation that stopped her at her tracks.
"I'm nobody special. I don't have anything to offer."
With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinets. "Oh my goodness, I really don't have anything to offer. I'll have to run down to
the store and buy something for dinner." She reached for her purse and counted out its contents. Five dollars and forty cents. "Well, I can get some bread and cold cuts, at least."
She threw on her old brown coat and hurried out the door.
A loaf of French bread, a half-pound of sliced turkey, and a carton of milk...leaving Ruth with grand total twelve cents to last her until Monday. Nonetheless, she felt good as she headed home, her meagre offerings tucked under her arm. At least it's time she could make up for God.
"Hey lady, can you help us, lady?"
Ruth had been so absorbed in her dinner plans, she hadn't even noticed two figures huddled in the alleyway. A man and a woman, both of them dressed in little more than rags. The sun dimmed across the alley. It was dangerous at this time to venture alone. And she wasn't concerned enought o bother with strangers.
"Look lady, I ain't got a job, ya know, and my wife and I have been living out here on the street, and, well, now it's getting cold and we're getting kinda hungry and, well, if you could help us. Lady, we'd really appreciate it."
Ruth looked at them both.
They were dirty, they smelled bad and frankly, she was certain that they could get some kind of work if they really wanted to. The man's west accent and ill-mannered tone only made her more irritated. She gritted her teeth.
"Sir, I'd like to help you, but I'm a poor woman myself. All I have is a few cold cuts and some bread, and I'm having an important guest for dinner tonight and I was planning on serving that to Him." She raised her eyebrows at her groceries, she couldn't possibly be ready on time for the Lord if she stalled any longer.
"Yeah, well, okay lady, I understand. Thanks anyway."
The man put his arm around the woman's shoulders, turned and headed back into the alley, shuffling their worn feet over the dirty pathway.
As she watched them leave, Ruth felt a familiar twinge in her heart. She wasn't a bad woman, she was being paid low and overworked, but what else can these people offer to themselves but starvation? Maybe if she gave them her food, they would last longer, find a job, and be successful and happy people themselves. Instead of being her, alone, busy and cold in outskirts New York.
"Sir, wait!" The couple stopped and turned as she ran down the alley after them. "Look, why don't you take this food. I...I'll figure out something
else to serve my guest." She shrugged and handed the man her grocery bag.
"Thank you lady. Thank you very much!"
"Yes, thank you!" It was the man's wife, and Ruth could see now that she was shivering. "You know, I've got another coat at home. Here, why don't you take this one." Ruth unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it over the woman's shoulders. Then smiling, she turned and walked back to the street...without her coat and with nothing to serve her guest.
"Thank you lady!
Thank you very much!" The man behind her. She turned around and waved before heading down the darkening night.
Ruth was chilled by the time she reached her front door, and worried too. The Lord was coming to visit and she didn't have anything to offer Him. She rubbed her arms as cold vapour escaped from her dehydrating lips. She fumbled through her purse for the door key. But as she did, she noticed another envelope in her mailbox, it was inside, with a corner of it still exposed to her sight.
"That's odd. The mailman doesn't usually come twice in one day." She took the envelope out of the box, tied back her dirty blonde hair and opened it.
Dear Ruth:
It was so good to see you again. Thank you for
the lovely meal. And thank you, too, for the
beautiful coat.
Love Always Jesus
The air was still cold, but even without her coat, Ruth no longer noticed. At a glimspe, she remembered, she recalled everything. She was lonely because she never committed to her parents, her friends, and her close relatives. She had shunned them away, and behind a glass barrier she has questioned her solitude. It's not about her anymore, it was about the people around her. Jesus had just came to remind her, that love is not as invisible as she thought.
I edited the story, this originated from a chain letter. Just a reminder that Lord is in our lives.