Kindness at the Transfer Station Speaks More of Christ than A Million Best Preached Sermons

This morning I had a profound encounter with kindness and as the affects worked their way in and through me I navigated truths I have held onto for the longest of times and found myself repenting and hungry.....

We have been away the last two garbage days.. or maybe it was that garbage day fell both on Christmas and New Years this year and besides being away I hadn't taken the time to look up when pick up actually would be... so we were left with all these bags of garbage and needing to get them taken care of...

Having been sick and ever so weak I had left them  for a couple of days and this morning, in beginning to get my strength back, thought that I would go to the transfer station...

Loading the garbage bags into the car and heading over there I smiled to myself as this transfer station always has the kindest workers and it isn't a drudgery at all to have to go there. While that statement is beyond true for any encounter I have had with the numerous employees that work there I was not prepared for the interaction of gentle kindness and life giving mercies that were about to befall me....

Maybe it was that I looked haggard that this stranger would be so kind however  the way this older man looked it was more that kindness was upon him as a lifestyle. I parked the car and went around to the other side to get out the bags. The gentleman came over and took them from me and I returned to get the other one only for him to have followed to assist again.

He had been talking to a friend of his and after helping me he went back to his conversation... But prior to me leaving he looked up at me and wished me a good day. He went back to his conversation however again he would look up at me and again he would with extra words of kindness continue to express his hope that my day was a good one.

I was left startled..  There was something resonating in the words he spoke and as I pulled around I thought I must go back and tell that man thank you.... but the driveway wasn't conducive to making a U-turn and so I drove off. But marked by his kindness I just had to go back and thank him... so I drove up the road and turned around and headed back...

By the time I arrived again at the transfer station it was full with people.. and I felt weird about approaching this stranger in front of everyone and expressing my gratitude but if ever I felt the nudging of Holy Spirit it was in this moment....

He looked up and saw me and I started to walk over to him... He was old enough to be my grandfather and as I went up to him he met me, looking at him I began to speak, “thank you.. thank you for those extra words of kindness.. I had to come back.. I had to tell you that the time you took to simply wish me a good day and help me out meant a lot to me.”

In turn he spoke of how my coming back and taking the time to say thank you blessed him... We shared a tad bit more dialogue and it was apparent as he offered to keep me in his prayers that his faith branded him.  It was his nature... it was who he was.....

 He walked me back to my car and opened the door for me..I stood there and hugged him....  twenty minutes prior complete strangers and now assisting me to my car and  telling me once again he would keep me in his prayers, waiting as I sat down, closing the door behind me .. it was the reality of Christ in that parking lot of the transfer station...

It is the kindness of God that leads people to repentance...

It is His mercy that triumphs over judgment..

In these moments, where kindness exploded into the atmosphere and strength and joy was imparted, my eyes were laid open to the capacity of the Kingdom of God to lay a hold of a moment and to impart life... not a worker at a transfer station and not a house wife and mom but earthly representations of a God whose kindness had Him enter so very profoundly into humanity... walking out that representation into the lives of one another.....