Stranger-Friend

Yes once you see Him you know you were with Him.   He didn't say a lot.   In my circumstances He was helping me.  

I had parked my truck on a curb in the parking lot of the gas department.   I pulled in too far.   One wheel went out over the curb the other didn't.   I saw what happened but went in to pay my gas bill.   I came out.   Now in front of my pick up is an open field of grass.   It had been raining very heavy for 2 days that field was soggy.   I threw my truck in reverse and all I could do was burn rubber.   I threw my truck in drive and punched it hard.   I went maybe 15 ft and sank like a rock.   The whole truck bottomed out in the field.   My tires were buried in mud.  

The gas department manager came out.   He was enraged.   I had dug trenches in his field.   I was not having a good day.   He wanted to know why I did it.   Why I didn't just drive out the normal way.  

This little old man in a tiny Toyota pickup stops and gets out.   The manager is asking me how I'm going to get my truck out.   What about the trenches how was I going to take care of them.   When this little old man comes up to me with a smile on his face like he had just won Mr. America.  

He says,  "Hay fella.   If you want I can pull you out."  

I was agitated by now.   I told him,  "You might pull me out but I'm not paying you for it."

He said,  "Oh no.   I don't want any money I just want to help ya.   If you want I can hook you up and have ya out in no time.   Ok fella?"

I said,  "Sure,  whatever."

The manager said,  "Now you ain't going no where till you talk to me."

I gave him my phone number,  my ID or drivers license which he took inside and made a copy on the copy machine.   He came back and gave me my licenses back and said,  "What you going to do about the trenches?"

I said,  "Will get a couple of yards of dirt n fill'em up this weekend when it dries out.   Ok?"

The old man said,  "I'm ready young fella."

Just as he said he pulled me out.   He disconnected the chains.   He walks up to me smiling again like he is Mr. America,  grinning from ear to ear.   Like Jerry Jones after he won the Super Bowl,  he standing in front of me.   The manager is threatening me if I don't come back with dirt and the old man says,  "Thank ya.    thank ya."

I said,  "Your welcome!"

He stopped smiling,  turned,  got in his truck and looked at me smiled and went on.  

That evening his face was burned into my mind.   I kept thinking of him.   Why was he so happy?    Maybe he was just an old man,  a Christian man.   But the look in his eyes,  I'm thinking of that old man.    The thing about it,  his face,  that look.   You know,  when you see an old friend you love and walk up to them and hug them like you haven't seen them in years.   That's how that old man was treating me.   Like he knew.   Like it was ok.   Everything was going to be all right.   He had a look in his eyes like he knew me.   I'm telling you he would stare straight in my eyes with authority and assurance he stared at me like a father does to a child.   He smiled at me as though he had known me all my life.   The manager thought the old man knew me.