When a Thoughtful Act Is Returned to You

 A few days ago I was on my way to the door of the post office at the same time as a man ahead of me. He was well ahead of me--enough that he could have gone in and the door would have shut and I still would not have arrived at the door yet. 

I thought he would go on into the post office, but he did not. He stood there by the door, waiting.

"He isn't waiting this long just to hold the door for me, is he?" I wondered. 

But, yes, he was. 

I had rarely had someone wait that long to hold a door for me.

I thanked him and went inside, and then I turned to him and said, "You were ahead of me. You can go first."

He shook his head. "It's okay!" he said cheerfully. "I'm not in a hurry."

And so I stood in line ahead of him even though he had arrived first at the door.

Well ahead of me. 

But something about what he said to me rang a bell.

I had heard that statement only a couple days earlier: "I'm not in a hurry."

 I remembered back suddenly to the evening when I was checking out of Walmart where I had a whole big cart of groceries. Behind me stood a man with just a few things in his cart.

"You go ahead of me," I had offered. "You only have a few things and I have a lot!"

He remonstrated at first, but I insisted, saying, "I am not in a hurry," and he moved ahead of me.

Now, strangely, only days later, the same kindness was being returned to me. Practically word for word!

Truly, as God's Word says, we reap what we sow; and how good it feels to reap kindness!