A man who needed a ride back home with his groceries.

We stopped by a restaurant on the way back home from ski trip to Vermont. The biggest city from the route down to NJ was Albany and one of our trip mates found a Chinese buffet there, big enough to host a big group like us with many kids.

The dinner was good with a lot of foods and talk. Then we left with a can of Monster energy drink for each of us to drive safely back home in the night after the belly blowing feast. When I opened the exit door and came out of the building there was a man standing next to the entrance stair below the big window of the restaurant emitting the light toward parking lot. He didn't look like a homeless but definitely not a visitor to the restaurant.

He saw me and asked me with a gentle voice.
"Hi, would it be possible for you to give me a ride? I got a box of stuffs but I have no car."
I don't remember the exact terms and sentences he used but I saw he had a box full of foods next to him he might get from local stores nearby. The restaurant was located at the end of the rows of stores and malls along the road. I replied,
"Oh sorry, I don't think I can. I have three kids so..."
I might be thinking I responded to him quickly enough to make him believe I was telling a truth without any pause of hesitation.
"Oh I understand, don't worry, I totally understand."
He might use different words but what he was trying to do was to make me feel less guilty for rejecting his request. The temperature was low. It was cold enough to make us not want to stay outside more than five minutes. I didn't know how long he had been waiting for someone to give him a ride there. We spent at least an hour in the restaurant.

I told him, "God bless you." He replied the same and added some words about Christ which I didn't clearly understand and remember. I stretched my  hand to shake hands. After a minute, all the crowds came out that he could see how many of us there. We got on the cars and left. I saw him still standing there waiting for a kind person to give him a ride. I talked to her about him and she wanted to help him. Although we didn't have room for him in our car she wanted to give him at least some cash to use to come back home. Unfortunately we only had three to four dollars of cash that might embarrass him since it was definitely not enough. He was not begging a coins or a dollar.

We left and stopped at the nearest gas station to fuel. I entered the mini store and asked if they had an ATM machine. I withdrew forty dollars that I was still not sure it was enough for him to use any driving service back home in this non-metropolitan area or even he would be willing to receive it. Anyway, we wanted to help him somehow. We drove back to the restaurant parking and found he was still there. At the moment  we were parking, another car was parking in the spot we parked before we left and he approached to the car and talked. Then the trunk lid of the car was open and he brought his box to the car. It seemed like he already talked to the driver of the car.

We could leave with relief because he could come back home safely. The good man who gave him a ride also had either family members or friends in his car. He must be a really good man that deserves God's blessing.

In fact, I was a bit afraid to give helping hands to a stranger when he needed. I thought it was a bit lucky for me to have a good excuse to reject him, which was evil mind in me. I had too much of information and news articles in which I read about the story that a kindness eventually turned into an unexpected bad crime. I may own too many things that make me afraid to loose. Yes, what Jesus Christ said about the rich was really true in Matthew 9:23, 24. I may not be a rich based on this country's standard but I may be a rich based on the Heaven's standard.