Spur-of-the-Moment Friendship
“Well,” I replied, “I’ve already given you the flowers — the least I can do is give you a ride home.” “Oh, you don’t need to do that,” she said with a pause and a twinkle in her eye. “But if you really want to, I’ll invite you in for a pot of my favorite tea and show you a few pictures of my husband too. He was quite a man . . .” “I’ll bet he was,” I answered. Obviously, God had a different plan for my afternoon than I had. “And tea sounds great. My car is over here.” I gave her a ride, went in and had some tea — which, as my British friends would say, was lovely — and saw the pictures and heard the stories about her husband. Soon she became curious about me, my wife, and what it was that had caused a young businessman to go out of his way “for an old lady like me.” I assured her she didn’t look that old, and I told her I thought that God might have prompted me to give her the flowers. I explained that I had trusted my life to Christ not too many years earlier, and that he was slowly turning me into the kind of person who would care about the needs of others. I didn’t preach, but I gently shared what I had learned and experienced, and I encouraged her to consider the gospel for herself. We had a great conversation, and it led to several other spiritually oriented interactions later on (some of which included Heidi, who, by the way, was pleased when she heard the story about her flowers). I don’t know what my friend’s final conclusion was conI didn’t preach, but I gently cerning her relationship with God, shared what I had learned but she certainly did listen in an open and experienced. and intent way. A decade later, after Heidi and I had moved several times and were living in another state, this lady went to the effort of finding our new address and mailing us 57