Do you remember my story about the Payless Saint?
You may read Part I here; and Part II here.
Last week I received the very best kind of Christmas email—a story of passing it on and of paying it forward; a story of yet another Payless Saint.
I asked Denise, who blogs at Ordinary Grace, if I had permission to post it and she said yes.
Here it is:
I’m writing because a while back you shared with us a story about being at Payless. You ended up frustrated with the final amount when a lovely woman stepped in and paid for your bill. That was such a wonderful story, both about giving and receiving grace and it stuck with me.
Today, at the grocery store, the lines were long and I was doing my best to keep my three guys from knocking over the candy displays as they chased each other around the cart. I noticed a woman at the front of the line on the verge of tears as she looked back at the customers behind her and said, “I’m so sorry, y’all! This will take a while to figure out what I can take off so I can pay.”
I know how miserable that is. I know how crappy it feels to know people are watching you and waiting for you and now you have to decide that because the money is tight or the card is wrong or whatever, how to get rid of 20 dollars worth of stuff that is already rung up.
And then I remembered your story and I thought how God works in such cool ways.
So I went behind to the cashier and asked how much she was short. It was just under 25 dollars. I asked the lady if she would mind if I paid and then I dug out some cash.
I told the lady I had some Christmas money still stashed and that I was happy to help.
She fought back tears as she came over gave me a big hug and said, “God is so good.”
“Yes, he is,” I answered.
My boys were a bit confused as to why I was hugging a stranger at the grocery store and why we were both teary-eyed…but you know how us ladies get. All emotional and such 😉
But I thought how neat that a blog post written months ago inspired more goodness to come into the world today. And I wanted to share that with you.
Because of you, your story and the inspiration of The Holy Spirit, there is a happy woman in Alexandria with all of her groceries tonight.
God works in cool ways, indeed! Thank you, Denise, and may God bless you abundantly for your generosity!
With love in the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts,
Oh, that is lovely! 🙂
I need a hug. Good thing Delaney just walked bye.
If the media would print such WONDERFUL stories such as this the world would not be such a sad state of affairs!! As any good Teacher, our Lord told us what would be on our “final exam” and how we would be “graded”. This lady and your shoe angel passed with flying colors!! Read Matthew 25: 31-46
signed
Theresa in ALberta
Thanks for sharing. God is Good.
Fantastic and lovely!! This cheered me immensely!!
Oh, that’s so sweet and lovely, and now I’m teary-eyed, too.
That made me all weepy over here. What a wonderful story, and a powerful testimony of God’s goodness!
Wow! Weepy here too.
I’m all teary-eyed — yes, God is good.
~Jenny
I was blessed with the opportunity to do that once, while waiting in the check out line. Little did I know that one day we would be in dire need and that strangers would answer God’s call to help us. And we have been helped, over the past six years since my husband lost his job and started his own business, way beyond the little I was able to share with a woman whose food stamps were not enough to cover her meager groceries for her and her little boys.
God truly does give back 110 percent of anything we give to Him.
That made me teary eyed, as I have been feeling the big financial pinch lately. Thank the good Lord I haven’t had to that yet! DH was short this week on cash, so when I gave him half of my tutoring money this afternoon, he became teary eyed too. God is good, isn’t he?