A New Apartment

thoughts on grace

They weren’t supposed to tell me her name. I really don’t know why, it seems there was something in her past they were trying to protect. I received the call on a Friday. The next day our church was doing our Garage Sale Giveaway. They had seen an ad on Fox News and had called to enquire about the items we would be giving away.

The case worker on the other end on the line explained that the young lady had been homeless, that her life until a year ago had been one on the streets. The case worker explained that they were moving the girl into an apartment, but she had no money and no real belongings. I guess it is hard to keep a U-Haul full of items when you aren’t even sure about your next meal.

They wanted to know if we would have items that could help this young woman, we will call her Ann, as she gets settled in. I told her that the items went fast and that they could come up early and look to see what we had. I told them to come early and knock on the door and we would let them it.

I will never forget the looks on the faces of all the other people waiting in line. I could almost here them say, “It’s not fair”, but then thinking better of it.

Ann loaded up several boxes of items that day. She packed up a comforter for her bed and plates for her kitchen. She loaded a storage container and pots and pans for her new beginning.

I smiled as they drove away because I knew we had been Christ to Ann that day. We had exercised pure religion that day, we had been there to help the orphan start again.

After they left we opened the doors to the rest. No one asked or complained about this young ladies early entry. I had thoughts of the parable of the workers in the vineyard.

There were other stories that day of people touched in the name of our King as we extended grace.