I was a three-year-old and my fifteen-year-old sister lifted me unto the seat of the pickup to travel to the local store. A kid could stand up in a vehicle in those days before car seats or even seatbelts were required. She wasn’t going to take me in, which I didn’t much appreciate, but I’m sure she had her reasons.
Not long after she went in, a teenage boy came out, opened the door, lifted me out and placed me on his shoulders to bring me into the store. In those days a kid going into an establishment that had candy, chips and soda pop was like going to heaven.
I don’t remember any more than that about the experience. It seems like a short time after that I was home alone with my mother and she was crying. The only thing I could comprehend was that the young boy who had been so good to me had died in a jeep accident. It was my first experience with the heartache of death involving someone you knew couldn’t be replaced.
There are two types of events that will leave a long-lasting impression on an individual’s mind. One is when someone has been kind to him or her and the other is when someone has not been kind.
There is a commandment given to us as Christians that carries as much weight as the Ten Commandments:
And be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God in Christ forgave you.
Think about it.
Gary