Reminders: Kindness is as Kindness Does
by Ardith Hoff
A wealthy man was out for a walk when he saw two men eating grass by the roadside. He asked them, “Why are you eating grass?”
“We don’t have any money for food,” the men replied.
“You can come to my house,” said the rich man.
“But sir, I have a wife and two children with me,” said one man.
“Bring them along!” said the rich man.
The other man said, “Sir, I have a wife and six children.”
“Bring them as well,” replied the rich man.
As they were walking to the rich man’s house one of the poor men said: “Thank you for taking all of us with you to your home.”
The wealthy man replied: “I’m glad to do it. You’ll love my place. The grass is almost a foot tall.”
For a moment we all thought the wealthy man was doing his Christian duty by inviting the poor people to his house for a meal, and he was. It just wasn’t the meal we expected him to offer.
Unfortunately, this is not that far from reality. An incident happened in a church I was attending some years ago. A social worker announced that a large family, with whom she was working, had lost their home to a fire. She asked if church members could help the family with clothing. Some people brought in nice clothing, but some brought clothing that was in terrible shape––in fact ragged.
Two of us delivered the items, and I apologized for the shape of some of the clothing. The mother agreed that she couldn’t send the children to school in some of them or they would be teased mercilessly. On the way home, the woman with me said, “That ungrateful mother! She has nothing. She should be grateful for everything she got.” I’m sure the mother was grateful for most of the things we brought, but she was right to be sensitive to her children’s needs not to be bullied.
Just because people are in need, we should not just offer them “grass” to eat or worn-out clothing. “My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you.” John 15:12 God gave us His son––His best!