Pay it forward

Have you ever had an experience where you just knew that God was orchestrating everything and waiting for you to have the "aha" moment He'd planned for you?? I had one of those today. Emily and I were starting out on a lovely drive this morning to go to Toddler Gym time at a local church. I was so excited about it because I loved meeting these sweet mamas and kiddos for the first time last week and I had a friend coming to it for the first time who I was going to introduce. We were plugging along when I decided to look over to the passenger seat to put my cell phone into the bag. BAM. Our right front tire hits the curb and then bump bump screech I realize in a matter of seconds that this was not just a little side swipe of the curb. My tires on our Accord have been through their share of minor curb kisses, but this one was a doozy. I think it took about 10 seconds for me to gather my thoughts and pull into a driveway to get us stopped and to look at the damage. It was worse than I thought. :-( The tire had completely flattened out and the rim was bent up as well. $$$$. Could I really have messed up my car twice in a matter of months?? I shakily called Greg to break the bad news and he was, thankfully, very calm on the phone and came right over. We were only a mile or so from our house.
Before long the owner of the house where I had pulled in came out to see what had happened and if he could help. He was incredibly nice and offered to let us sit inside his house and enjoy some coffee or hot chocolate. I was too embarrassed about everything to come inside and figured the tow truck would be there soon. I didn't want to be an inconvenience. This man had come out of the house seconds after my tears had started flowing as I'd apologized to Greg and let the weight of the problem hit me. I told him we were on one income and that this was just not what we needed to have happen and I wasn't even sure how it had happened but here we were. He encouraged us that it wasn't as bad as it looked and that we were more than welcome to come inside while we waited.

We decided to wait in the CRV, but before long he was pulling out of his driveway heading to work and stopped at our car first. We rolled down our window and he said, "You happened to pull into the right driveway today." He handed us his business card with the words "Good for one tire and rim. Pay it forward" and his signature on the back. With jaws dropped, we listened as he shared that he wanted to be able to cover the cost of the new tire and rim we would need in exchange for us paying it forward to a person we saw had a need. W.h.o.a. He shared that this is the way he lives his life and that this is the way the world should work. He knows the owner of a local car repair company and said all we needed to do was show that man the business card and it would be taken care of.

We both teared up as he headed off to work and realized that God never lets one moment of our days out of His sight. He moves His people to incredible things. The man shared that he was a stay at home dad for awhile and that he was glad to see that we were doing the best thing for our family even when we see so many families around us earning two incomes and having the financial ability to do more than we could. What a blessing and encouragement!!!

We are excited to see how the Lord asks us to pay it forward to someone else. What a privilege to pass on this act of kindness and be the hands and feet of Jesus.

I would LOVE to hear more stories like this-- anyone have one to share?