SUNDAY, MARCH 20, 2011
LIFE STORY
I would like to share a short story about a man named Richard. He was a homeless man I had met one night at the restaurant I worked at. He had come in asking if he could do any work in exchange for some food or money and our relationship developed on that premise over the course of that summer. He would disappear for weeks at a time, but always would return for a good chat and a nice meal together.
One time after I had not seen him for a couple of weeks, he came in one night…but this time…he had other plans. He told me he needed my help to figure out a RESUME!!! You don’t know HOW happy I was when I heard that he had spoken with a restaurant around town and the manager had asked Richard to create a resume and fax it to him ASAP!!
We worked on the resume all night and enjoyed a nice meal and excellent conversation together afterwards. He was a total joker! It was quite rewarding to be able to offer him something that was relatively simple on my part – time and friendship. When we wrapped up that night, I told him I was planning to stick around the restaurant for a few more hours, studying for an upcoming exam, and he left to try and find enough cash for some shelter that night. Funny thing was that not more than 45 minutes later, he was back at the restaurant, knocking on the windows to get my attention. As I approached to open the door for him, what do I see but a BUCKET of STRAWBERRY ICE CREAM in his hands!
“LET’S MAKE MILKSHAKES!!!” he said with a child-like sense of excitement!! I asked him what he was doing and he simply said: “Well I figured I wouldn’t get enough money to crash at the House of Friendship tonight, and I was hot, so I bought some ice cream! When I realized how MUCH there was I thought of you, sitting here studying for that stupid test and thought you might want to have some, too! So…you got any MILK?!”
The next half hour was spent digging up any and ALL the ingredients we could think of to make this shake the SUPER SHAKE! And BOY was it ever the SUPER SHAKE!! *droool* Started with Strawberry shortcake ice-cream…added some fresh mangos…a bit of crushed ice cubes…chocolate syrup…and to top it all off…some sweet sweet Fortune COOKIE CRUMBLES…God’s love works in funny ways sometimes, doesn’t it? We give Him a little time and compassion, and He comes to our door, bringing back a “milkshake”. Who would have thought?
– Alex Wang