Stories from your friendly, neighborhood artist

Story and art by Kirk McConnell:
It’s 4:37 PM, a Monday late afternoon, and the sun is setting with the golden amber color piercing through clouds low set in the sky. Patches of blue mix with patches of orange and shredded cotton weaves a late afternoon tapestry.  I sit at the bus stop and witness all the busy traffickers heading home or to dinner.   Pearlescent  and  ruby tail lights of cars are brightly lit and the trees begin to silhouette, and you can hear the loud boisterous noises of car radios as people try to unwind from the day.

Me, I’m just sitting at my bus stop and waiting for my bus to arrive as I go about my usual meandering.   It’ll be after dark by the time I get home.  I was not in a good place mentally earlier, but I have God’s peace coursing through me, and I’m thankful and grateful for the peace that he gives me when I start to feel anxious.   

I was thinking about Psalm 107:1, and just thanking God for his goodness. If you think about it, that entire passage of Psalm 107 is full of things that we can thank God for and be grateful for in our lives.

I’m just speaking from my own experience but if you give to somebody out of your own abundance, what good is that in the blessing of another person? I have found myself helping individuals even out of my own need, and God has blessed me for it.

Yesterday when I was at the 99 Cents store, there was a girl purchasing items in line and the line was getting  backed up. She didn’t speak very much English and she was paying for everything with pennies, nickels, dimes and quarters – whatever she had. The cashier was looking frantic. I was next in line, not that I was in a hurry or anything, and I felt led to ask if I could pay for her purchase? And so she said OK. I told her it would be better if she could change her coins at the bank or at a gas station. I think she understood but I also felt really good about helping her. It felt like it was the right thing to do. After I purchased my items I went outside to look at the sky because there was all the smoke coming from the southwest from a brushfire. As I was standing there the girl that I had just helped came up and told me thank you. And it was an opportunity to just share with her how God has helped me. She was very grateful. I asked her name and she told me. And so I prayed a blessing for her over her before we parted ways and then I went on my way. But you never know whose life you’re going to connect with or impact. If you walk away not helping somebody and knowing that you could, you would definitely know it in your heart. It felt to me like it was the right thing to do.   I’m not always able to help like I would like to, but if I can help even in a small way I try to help. That was just my lesson yesterday. I hope this is encouraging to whoever else reads this.

 

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