humbled

Sydney and I were in Moscow today getting supplies. In Winco it seemed like everything was taking forever. We finally get to the checkout and get halfway through being rung up and the register dies. A manager comes over and tries to revive it, but it is dead. We move to a new register and luckily, even though Sydney has been signing that she is hungry for quite some time, she is distracted by all of the grandma and grandpa people leaving the store. She loves greeting people.

We finally have everything re-rung and re-bagged and I open my wallet to...no debit card. Nick has borrowed it again. So, I pull out my credit card and the nice checkout lady tells me they only take cash, check or debit. I start mildly freaking out, but remember that I used my credit card for cash in Europe like 10 years ago. So, Sydney and I tromp over to the atm and attempt to get cash. 3 times. Each time Sydney is trying very hard to help me type in my pin, which is sweet, but not so helpful. So, with my body temperature rising higher, we walk back over to the register to admit that we have no money and the nearest bank we can get money from is in Pullman. I'm near tears and fully embarrassed as I tell the checker this and I'm so frustrated that we've now been in Winco for 45 minutes or more and will now go home empty handed.

Then, in what seemed super slow motion, the checker pulls $1oo bill out of her pocket, puts it in the till, counts out the change which she repockets and hands me the receipt. I am trying to say, "NO!" but I'm not sure it came out. She put her hand on my arm and said, "Honey, it's God. Why else would I have that much money in my pocket today? Don't you EVEN try to pay me back. It's a gift." At this point I start sputtering, "No, ...but...I have to pay you back...You can't..." and then my near-tears of shame and frustration turn to near-tears of...well, I'm not sure what because I haven't experienced it before. humility? thankfulness? shock? At this point the woman behind me in line was openly staring, so I kind of stumbled out of the store in awe.

I cannot believe that a woman, who looked like life has been much less kind to her than it has been to me so far, paid for my groceries without hesitating. It reminded me of what Richard is always saying--that we are called to be Christ in the world. Rarely have I seen acts that are clearly this. She wasn't starting a soup kitchen or trying to change the world on a large scale, but she was kind to me in a way I'm not sure another human has been kind to me before.

Fear not, after feeding Sydney's little maw, we drove to Pullman, deposited Nick's check, got cash, wrote a thank you and drove back to find our sweet checker. She tried to not take the money, but I managed to get her to take it by telling her that I was so glad that we are all being looked out for, but that someone else needed this money more than I did. And we had a beautifully human moment under the terrible fluorescent lights of Winco. I am humbled and blessed.