On Planned Acts Of Kindness:
“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.” Ralph Waldo Emerson
On Unplanned Acts Of Kindness:
The Word of God includes numerous instances of unplanned decent treatment of strangers, indiciting it to be a virtue of prime importance. Some of these examples, such as the good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-35) are obvious. Others are less so.
In Genesis 24, Abraham’s “senior servant” (generally considered to be Eliezer (Genesis 15:2)), is on a mission to Abraham’s homeland (“Aram-Naharaim) to find a wife for Abraham’s son, Isaac. Eliezer’s entourage included ten camels loaded with an abundance of gifts from his master. Arriving at the city of Nahor, he stopped at a well just outside the city. The main plot of this story is Eliezer’s prayer and the arrival at the well of Rebecca, Isaac’s future wife. But one of the subplots is Rebecca’s kindness at offering to help water the ten camels. This was no small thing in that day, and could easily have taken over an hour of Rebecca’s time.
What a marvelous insight into Rebecca’s character through her generosity to a stranger.
Will the same be said of you and I today? My prayer today is that God puts “a stranger at the well” in front of each of us today. And that neither of us miss the opportunity for an act of kindness.
We can simply have no idea where it will lead in the Providence of God.
From the #imjustsaying series