Act of kindness sparks spiritual insight

There was a man in a local restaurant reading his Bible at a table in our area.

We'd gone out for breakfast with our teen grand and his sister to celebrate his new-to-him shiny red truck. My husband's a Ford man, and this was a Dodge Ram, but he was grandpa gracious about it. The next thing we knew, our server said there was no bill. Someone had paid for our breakfast. 

I have an idea it was the man with the Bible. I stopped on the way out and commented on his reading. He had a verse circled in Psalm 66: “I will pay You my vows.” I spoke up. “You know, Jesus needed His friends that night before His crucifixion in the Garden of Gethsemane — and they fell asleep — twice. Every year I wish I could have been the one to stay awake with Him. And every year it's a bust.” 

The man asked in a southern drawl, “Why do you think you aren't that person?” 

“Because I'm from the hedge like anybody else. I need His forgiveness — for a lot of things. I fail. I blow it.” 

“Let me flip that script,“ the man said. “Maybe you are the one who stayed awake — now.” 

“I'll think about that,” I told him, as I walked away. And I have. I'm growing in what he was wanting to communicate. The Bible says Jesus saw the “fruit” of His anguish and was “satisfied.” People like me who would believe He came from God to open the way for me to know God. 

He is all the things foretold about Him — my wonderful counselor, mighty God, everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. His own disciples at the time might have slept — it had been an exhausting day. There had been Jesus' announcement of betrayal from one among their own. He had talked of His body broken and blood shed. What did all this mean. The Bible says they slept “from sorrow.” 

He forgave them. He knew they'd come through their grief and confusion and fear. And they did. For the rest of their lives, they told the world about Him. And millennia later, I heard. Jesus saw me — and all who believe — and said, “I am satisfied. I have loved you with an everlasting love.” 

Psalm 66, which “Bible man” was reading, also says, “Come and hear, all you who revere God, And I will tell of what He has done for my soul.” Jesus has secured it, protected it, nourished it and tended it. My soul is safe with Him. It is my privilege to proclaim Him.  

I see now, as His “fruit,” I am awake in the garden with Jesus, when He prayed for strength. I am suffering with Him on the cross when He forgave my sins — and covered me with His life that “knew no sin.” And I am right there when He rose to life that Easter morning. I hold the joy of knowing I get Him forever. 

A shiny red truck; a reason to celebrate; a breakfast bill paid by a stranger; a man reading a Bible at a nearby table — a pause to hear his words for me. God put it all together to once again care for my soul. 

Carol Shirk Knapp is the author of “The Preacher’s Kid” column.