Yesterday after placing an order at Noodles for myself and my daughter I realized I left my wallet at home so I told the woman who took our order that we would have to come back. Without hesitating the young checkout woman told me that she would buy our lunch. What? I was so confused. I politely told her she could not do that but she insisted and wouldn’t even take the two singles I found buried in the bottom of my purse. I asked her name and when we prayed for our meal we thanked God for Heather.
It was very difficult to accept Heather’s generosity. I was caught between being embarrassed, confused and blessed. But what I loved about Heather is she exemplified Love Does (a must read by Bob Goff). Real love, Godly love doesn’t hesitate. It doesn’t contemplate. Real love sees a need and when in a position to help, does so. Love does is about doing, not thinking about doing, wishing we had done or completely missing the opportunity to love because we are too self-absorbed, too worried about checking things off our to-do list or ensuring we stay on schedule.
I wanted to return the favor to Heather but she did not want even my two dollars. I have heard that sometimes our well intentioned attempts to pay people back or bless them in return robs people of the joy of being a blessing in the first place and I certainly didn’t want to do that. So I went back up to the counter and awkwardly gave her my business card and told her that I was going to blog about her today. I hope that if you read this Heather, you will be blessed by knowing that you LIVE love. I don’t know if you are a Christian or not but either way, you surely could teach those of us who profess to love Jesus a thing or two about acting like Him more often.
“Dear Lord, thank you for Heather. Thank you for the quiet way she blessed my daughter and I yesterday. Thank you for what she taught me when she helped without making a big scene about it, without making about herself and without giving it a second thought. Lord, help me to love like Heather the next time I have the chance (which will be multiple times a day, every day for the rest of my life if I keep my eyes open). Please bless Heather, Lord and if she does not know you I pray you would help her to fall in love with your son Jesus because she already understands what it means to do love like you intended it; humbly, quickly and generously. In Your Name, Amen.”