Last week I had to make an emergency trip to England. My mother had died suddenly, and unexpectedly, and so I had to drop everything to fly over for the funeral, and to close up her apartment. Although I generally love to go to England when I can, this was not a joyous occasion, and what little time I had to spend there was taken up with tiring and sad chores. But it is always possible to squeeze a little pleasure out of the most dismal times, I believe.

On the day before I was due to fly back, my sisters and I managed to get finished with our tasks quite early, so I had most of the day to drive around and visit old friends. There was one family that lives about twenty miles from where I was staying that I was most anxious to catch up with, so I set out in my rental car on what was fast turning into a gorgeous late summer afternoon. I was about five miles from their house when I spotted a gas station, and, seeing that the needle was getting over towards empty, I decided to pull in and fill up. Scarcely had I filled the tank when I heard the familiar lub-lub-lub sound of a car being driven with a flat tire. I turned to see a large station wagon limping into the gas station.

The vehicle crawled to a halt and a clearly distressed women raced from it into the office of the filling station, and then, almost immediately raced back out towards me. The poor woman was in such a panic when she approached me, and asked in a stricken voice, "can you change a tire?" As it happens I was dressed in a three-piece suit, but I said "sure" and took off my jacket and vest. Just for curiosity, though, I did wonder out loud whether anyone inside could do the job. The woman explained that, it being a Saturday, there was no mechanic or other help except for the cashiers on duty. A quick inspection of the trunk revealed no jack and a dubious looking spare. This caused even more anxiety on the woman's part, and by this time I had noticed that she had five young children in the station wagon, who were all by now chattering loudly with one another, and starting to ask innumerable questions about what was to happen next.

The woman hastily explained to me that she was taking the children to a soccer match, and that she had been forced off the road by a careless driver while she was making a turn. Her wheel had hit a sharp rock beside the road and shredded the tire. But, she also explained that she lived about eight miles away, and if she could get back home she had another car she could use to get to the match. Afterwards she could come back and sort out the flat tire. At that point she turned to me in despair and said "I don't suppose you could give us a lift back to my other car could you?"

The children all had a terrific time squashed into the back seat of my brand new rental car, while the woman, whose name was Anna, sat up front with me. Her panic seemed to be subsiding now that she had a plan of action, and her only concern was to get to the match in time. Meanwhile I smiled inwardly at how easily we can be thrown off balance, and yet how easy it is to set things to rights again. I was also beginning to think, a little too pridefully, that God's plan for me that day was to be in the right place at the right time so that I could demonstrate my Christian charity as the Good Samaritan. Then the true lesson of the day was given to me.

We arrived at Anna's second car in good time, and as we pulled into her driveway a little voice piped up from the back seat "we've been very lucky today haven't we mum?" This took me completely by surprise. From one point of view there was not much lucky about the day. They had almost crashed, they had a flat tire, and they were likely to be late for the match. But instead of seeing all the negatives, this child had focused on the positive things. No wonder Jesus himself was so fond of children. Somehow they can tear through all the adult cares and woes, and find a place of light and harmony.

This child helped me to see that even in my own grief there was brightness and joy, if I knew where to look for it. I realized that there were so many things in my mother's life to be thankful for, indeed, there were so many things to be thankful for right at that very moment. But it was up to me to turn towards the light and recognize my blessings. I had originally thought that I was the ministering angel that day; but I was not. A little child had ministered to me.

Rev. John Forrest

Stony Point Presbyterian Church