Five-dollar Blessing

I was standing in line at the bakery to buy eight burger-sized loaves, not realizing that this transaction would end in a totally different way than it did every other week. The customer ahead of me, an older gentleman, was placing his order for “fungi,” a Caribbean delicacy of boiled cornmeal and okras. He took his time selecting something to eat with the starchy dish. He finally decided on stewed chicken with lots of gravy.

Then he asked for a little more gravy.

The pleasant clerk happily complied. The price? Five dollars.

The customer checked his cargo pants, but the search turned up nothing. So he went outside to his vehicle, I supposed.

He returned with a puzzled look on his face.

I have had this expression before on my own face before —credit card left at home, cash in my other bag. “I don’t know what happened,” he stuttered to the clerk, still checking his pockets in disbelief. “I will pay for his meal,” I heard myself saying. I had at least an extra five dollars, I knew. I had not planned this.

It was truly a random act of kindness.

The customer looked at me, beyond puzzled. “Yes,” I said, putting the Styrofoam container into his hands, and paying the attendant five dollars.

“I will pay you back.” I can imagine his conversation at home that night. Maybe he shared his fungi and chicken with someone at home, telling them about the lady who paid for his meal. A lady he had never seen, who materialized out of nowhere it seemed. I can imagine him still with the puzzled look on his face.

I hope that as he reflected, he realized that his forgotten five dollars had resulted in an unexpected blessing from God. But the blessing was two-part —not just for the receiver but also to the giver. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me” (Matthew 25:40, KJV), said the Master.

If I had not “done it,” what a blessing I would have lost!

Annette Walwyn Michael