I read a powerful story last night in, “Hot Illustrations for Youth Talks,” by Wayne Rice that really moved me and I just have to pass it on to you.

 Luke 6:38 says, “Give, and it will be given to you.” I consider it an aspect of grace, God’s grace,  when we help people in need without asking anything in return. Yet, as we give and show God’s grace to someone in need  we receive much more back than what we could have possibly asked for .

And elderly woman broke down on the side a highway with a flat tire. In a moment it seemed a young man said, “I’m here to help you, ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm? By the way, my name is Bryan.

The elderly woman breathed a sigh of relief. There was no way she could have changed the tire.

Bryan had the spare tire on and the jack down in less than 10 minutes.

The woman rolled down the window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through.

She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid. Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. She asked him how much she owed him.

Bryan never thought twice about asking for money, even though he could have used some financial help. Changing a tire was not a job to him; it was a matter of helping someone in need.

He told the woman that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance they needed. “And when you do,”“think of me.”

Bryan waited until the woman started her car and drove off.

A few miles down the road the woman saw a small diner. Though the place didn’t look like much, she went in to grab a bite to eat and take the chill off before she made the last leg of her trip home.

Her waitress brought a clean towel for the woman to dry her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet all day couldn’t erase.  The woman noticed that the waitress was pregnant. She wondered how someone who seemingly had so little could be so generous and kind to a stranger.

Then the woman remembered Bryan. After she finished her meal, she gave the waitress a $100 bill. While the waitress went to get change, the woman slipped quietly out the door.

When the waitress came back to the table, she noticed something written on a napkin. When she picked it up to read it, she noticed four $100 bills that had been left underneath it.

There were tears in the waitress’s eyes when she read what the woman had written:”You don’t owe me anything. I’ve been there, too. Somebody nice helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: don’t let this chain of love end with you.”

That night when the waitress got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the woman had written. How could the woman have know how much she and her husband needed that money?

With the baby due in a month, she knew how worried her husband was. As he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered softly, “Everything’s going to be all right. I love you, Bryan.”

I don’t know about you but this story makes me want to share grace with someone in need today.

Prayer: Father, teach me how to really love and serve people like you. Let me not be to busy, to focused on my own agenda that I can’t see people around me who need a smile, a hug, a kind word or even a get down and get dirty kind of help. Lord, I know I can’t pass on your love and grace unless you live in me. So here’s my life again - live and love through me.