Husband and I stood dumbfounded in the vestibule of a little country church a few days ago.  We were staring drop-jawed at a friendly man about our age.  Having just met him, Husband had engaged him in conversation.

“Where did you grow up?” asked Husband.

“Cottage Grove,” the man answered.

“Oh, ok. I grew up in Tualatin,”  responded Husband.

It was then that the conversation took an amazing turn.

“Oh, Tualatin!  I went to church there.  In fact, the pastor there married my wife and me in 1974.  It worked, we’re still married!” he said with a chuckle.  “The pastor’s name was Jerry J..”

“We know Jerry!”  said Husband.  “In fact, Jerry and my dad were good friends.  My dad modified a bow so he could enjoy bow hunting.”

Why would modifying a bow be important?  You see, Jerry, now an old man, is very badly crippled from childhood polio.  When he contracted the disease, one of his arms was broken.  His polio settled in both arms, but the broken one became seriously deformed and didn’t grow while the other arm was also weakened but continued to grow.  A man with two crippled arms doesn’t seem like a good candidate for bow hunting, right?  But the man had an ingenious and caring friend, Husband’s dad, who devised an adaptation for a bow so that Jerry could shoot it.  Dad connected a foot stirrup to the bow so it could be operated with a foot and the man’s one usable arm.  By lying on his back on the ground with his foot in the stirrup holding and aiming the bow, Jerry could pull the bowstring with his better arm.  Dad spent hours a week training him to shoot.

“So that was your dad who modified his bow?!  Jerry and I had a lot of fun hunting together, but I always did stay behind him when he shot!” said our new friend.

There we stood, complete strangers to one another a few minutes earlier, but now joined by the crippled man who had pastored and mentored our new friend and the pastor’s caring friend, Husband’s father, whose good deed still speaks 40 years later.  It got me thinking about the ripple effect of our actions.

You know how some photographs stick in your mind?  One that comes to mind is the photo taken August 14, 1945, when the war ended and a sailor caught up in the celebration of the moment grabbed a nurse and kissed her dramatically.  (Many years later he would explain that the nurses aboard his naval ship had demonstrated such bravery and dedication when treating badly burned victims of an attack on a nearby ship that he was forever thankful for their contribution.)  It was a moment that lives on.  Perhaps you have a photo of someone in your family that is one you’ll always cherish.  A moment in their lives that lives on.

You may have many people who live on in your memory because they did something kind for you.  I know I do.  A certain Sunday school teacher and a pastor who nurtured my joy of learning about God.  A family who loved on me when I was lonely.  An old, blind lady who invited us for home cooked meals when we were poor and I was pregnant.  A professor at Bible school.  An older couple who befriended and mentored us when we were young and inexperienced parents.  I doubt that these people thought I’d be writing about them in 2018.  They were just doing what their loving hearts prompted them to do.  Showing kindness just flowed out of them.  They weren’t trying to earn points or impress others.  They did what they did because they loved and cared about me and many others.

“And don’t forget to do good and to share with those in need. These are the sacrifices that please God.”  Hebrews 13:16

Sometimes our investment in others doesn’t seem monumental.  Take, for instance, a certain high school shop teacher.  The teacher routinely taught 25 boys in each of his classes.  But he especially impacted the course of one boy’s life.  The boy was eager to learn all the skills the teacher taught- woodworking, metal fabricating, building, welding, etc.  Seeing the young man’s potential, the teacher spent extra time with him outside of class.  He participated in a canoe race with him in a canoe the boy made in shop class.  The teacher took the young man for his first airplane ride in his own small plane.  I don’t think he could have known that that experience would shape the next decades of the boy’s life.  The boy went on to be an air traffic controller at the busiest airport in the world while in the military and later became an aircraft mechanic for a mission organization that provided air ambulance service for the desperately sick, transport for life-sustaining food in natural disasters, and carried teachers and pastors to the remotest corners of the earth.  And that boy would build an aircraft hangar in the middle of the jungle from concrete he mixed himself with sand and gravel from the river and wood cut down nearby.  In later years, he would also build shops for himself so he could tinker, and houses for his wife.  He had learned that “Can do!” attitude from a certain high school shop teacher.  That high school boy was my husband.

“But I, the Lord, search all hearts and examine secret motives. I give all people their due rewards, according to what their actions deserve.”  Jeremiah 17:10

When our motivation is love, whatever we do has eternal value.  It doesn’t matter if it’s teaching or cooking a meal, counseling or having an open door.  Even if it doesn’t feel monumental, it all matters.  And the effect isn’t momentary, it started in that moment and ripples out into eternity.  Those people influenced Husband and me and we’ve influenced others.  I see that ‘Can Do’ attitude in our children.  The ones we’ve influenced have influenced yet others.  We simply don’t know which of our actions will touch someone and mold them and they, in turn, will affect others.  I’m thinking that should make us keenly aware of the words we choose and the attitude out of which we act.  The impact could far outlive our earthly lives.

And I heard a voice from heaven saying, “Write this down: Blessed are those who die in the Lord from now on. Yes, says the Spirit, they are blessed indeed, for they will rest from their hard work; for their good deeds follow them!”  Revelation 14:13

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