“Bill, would you mind letting me run one little errand? It’s only a block out of our way?”
“Sure,” Aunt Joanne. “You need to pay a bill, or stop at another store or something?”
“No, nothing like that. But, while I was at the grocery, I picked up a few things for a friend. I was planning on just walking it over to her later, but if you don’t mind stopping for a moment it would save me a long walk.”
“I’m glad to do it, Aunt Joanne, but it’s going to cost you.”
“Oh really? And just how high is your price?”
“Well, I’m pretty sure that I smelled your famous apple crumb pie when I stopped to pick you up to take you to the grocery.”
“And I suppose you want a piece?”
“Does a preacher want converts?”
“If you turn right at the next intersection and stop at the fourth house on the right, I’ll see if I can’t spare a piece of pie for you.”
“Aunt Joanne, you’ve got a deal!”
Bill turned right and pulled over in front of the fourth house. It was a small, dilapidated house that was in bad need of a paint job.
Surprised, Bill asked, “Who do you know that lives here, Aunt Joanne?”
“Karen Milhouse. She used to live across the street from me. Then she divorced her husband, and had to move here.”
“Wow, she should have had a better divorce lawyer.”
“Why do you say that, Bill?”
“Because by the looks of things she didn’t do very well in divorce court.”
“Bill, I think she was just so relieved to get away from her husband, that she pretty much let him have everything he wanted. He was abusing her. He sent her to the hospital at least twice that I know of. But when he started hitting her kids, she packed up and left and never went back.”
Joanne opened the car door, and started toward the groceries in the back.
“I’ll carry the groceries in for you, Aunt Joanne. Just show me which ones.”
Suddenly a child’s voice was heard coming from the house, “Mommy! Mrs. Wilson is here! Hi, Mrs. Wilson!”
“Hi, Augie!” Joanne responded.
“What’s in the bags, Mrs. Wilson?”
“Oh, just a little something for your mother.”
“Is there milk in that little something?” Augie asked. “We’re running low on milk. So Mommy said we had to save the rest for my baby sister. I’m drinking water! Mommy said it is good for me.”
“It sure is good for you,” Joanne agreed, “but I think there just might be some fresh milk in these bags. I know how much you like milk.”
“Hi, Mrs. Wilson,” Karen said as she stepped to the door. “I hope Augie isn’t making a pest of himself. He sure misses living across the street from you.”
“Well, I miss him too. The neighborhood just isn’t the same without your family,” Joanne said. “Oh, and please excuse my bad manners,” she added. “Karen, this is my sister’s son, Bill. He offered to take me to the grocery while my sister is away on vacation.”
“Hi,” Karen said as she waved a welcome to Bill.
“Hi,” Bill responded. “Tell me where you want me to put these bags, and I’ll carry them in for you.”
“Oh you don’t need to bother with that,” Karen said. “I’ll just take them in myself.” She reached out and took the bags from Bill, and then turned back to Joanne and said, “Mrs. Wilson, you shouldn’t be spending money on us. We’ll get by. I’m expecting a support check in the mail today, or tomorrow at the latest.”
“I know, honey. This isn’t anything. Really it’s just an excuse to stop by and see my favorite four-year-old and his baby sister.”
“I’m afraid his baby sister was up most of the night, and she’s taking an extra long nap now to make up for it.”
“Not sick, I hope,” Joanne said.
“No. She is just very happy to stay up and entertain Mommy late at night. I think the little stinker is going to grow up to be a real party animal.”
“Some babies are like that,” Joanne said. “Bill used to be that way when he was just a cute little baby, but now that he’s all grown up he goes to bed with the chickens!”
“What my aunt isn’t telling you,” Bill added, “is that I have to get up at 4:00 am to go to work. Maybe if you wake your daughter at 4:00 am, she will want to go to sleep a little earlier too.”
“Don’t listen to him, Karen. He doesn’t know a thing about babies! Wake a baby at 4:00 am, and you’ll pay for it for the next three days!” Then taking Bill’s arm, Joanne said to him, “Come on trouble-maker. Take me home. I’m feeling like a nap myself.”
They said their goodbyes, and headed to the car. When they got back into the car, Bill asked, “Why does she let her kids live like that? Their house is a dump. The neighborhood stinks. They’re out of milk, and who knows what else. And I know why she didn’t want me to take the groceries inside. From what I could see through the door, it’s pretty sparse in there.”
“Come on, Bill. Give the woman a break! She’s doing the best she can!”
“Well, she shouldn’t have been in such a hurry to get out of her marriage. She could have gotten a much better divorce settlement, and what about alimony and support checks?” Bill demanded.
“Bill, shame on you! She got out of that marriage as fast as possible because her children were in danger! And she is supposed to get alimony and child support, but that depends on the jerk who was beating her up. If he doesn’t feel like writing a check, she has no income!”
“Why doesn’t she go out and get a job?” Bill insisted. “She’s nice-looking, and seems to be smart. There are places out there that would hire her.”
“Bill, you really don’t know a thing about kids, do you? She can’t just leave a baby and a four-year-old at home alone to take care of themselves! She doesn’t have any family in the area to help watch them. And have you priced child-care lately? Any pay she would get would just go to pay child-care for her two kids, especially with one of them being a baby. And call me old-fashioned, but I don’t think we should be letting strangers raise our kids. At least not if we can help it. That job is too important to trust to strangers.”
“What about welfare, food stamps and other types of public assistance?”
“I’m sure that is what Karen is using to get by on. But you see what it buys don’t you? Unfortunately the public insists on doing as little as possible for people depending on the public dole. And if memory serves me right, it wasn’t even two weeks ago that I heard you ranting and raving about how much money we are wasting on people unwilling to support themselves. If Karen lived in a nice house, drove a nice car, and had plenty of food and other necessities for her children, you and lots of others would be complaining because we are providing too much assistance.”
“I don’t want to support lazy people, but people with little kids are different.”
“Bill, the majority of people receiving public support now, are people with children. But the tax-paying public just doesn’t know and really doesn’t care.”
“Yeah, but it’s just not right. Those little kids deserve better, Aunt Joanne. And, from what you say, Karen does too.”
“I know. That’s why I always buy a few extra groceries. It’s not much, but maybe the Lord will use it like the fish and loaves. He fed five thousand men, and who knows how many women and children with just five loaves of bread and two fish. I figure he can take care of a woman and two children with what I can afford to buy.”
“Aunt Joanne, that’s why I love you. You’re always taking care of other people.”
“You know, Bill, you could do more for others yourself. You’re single, have a good job, and the Lord would be pleased to see you doing more to help others.”
“You’re right, Aunt Joanne. That’s why I’m going to help you get rid of that nasty old apple crumb pie that just came out of your oven!”
“Good land, boy! Don’t you ever stop thinking about your stomach! I’m not sure that even the Lord has enough miracles to fill up your stomach.”
A Week Later
“Thank you for taking me to the grocery store again, Bill.”
“You’re welcome, Aunt Joanne, but I’ve been thinking about something you said to me last week. Remember how you said that I should be doing more for others?”
“Oh, honey, I shouldn’t have said that. I hope I didn’t hurt your feelings.”
“I suppose you did a little bit, but you were right to do it. Because I realized that I really should be doing more to help others. And so I was wondering, would you let me buy the extra groceries for your friend, Karen, and her kids?”
“No, I won’t.” Joanne answered. “I’m going to buy what I usually do. But you can buy some other groceries that I know they like. Then Karen will have a little more money to use someplace else.”
“Aunt Joanne, you’re one smart cookie!”
“I don’t know about that, but I do know that the Lord has just doubled my loaves and fishes! Oh, and speaking of cookies, I suppose you smelled those double chocolate chip cookies I took out of the oven just before you came to pick me up.”
“You bet I did.”
“Well, since you are doing something good for others today, I think I could do something good for you too – like share a few of those cookies with you.”
“You know, Aunt Joanne, I bet little Augie likes double chocolate chip cookies. How about after I drop you off with your groceries, I make the ultimate sacrifice and take my cookies back to Augie?”
“No need for my favorite bachelor to sacrifice,” Joanne answered. “The Lord has already provided enough cookies to feed both of you.”
“Aunt Joanne, You’re the best!”
Another Week Later
“Aunt Joanne, there is an absolutely wonderful smell coming from that bag you are carrying!”
“It’s blackberry cobbler fresh from the oven. I thought while we were grocery shopping that maybe we could pick up the a la mode part, and take the whole thing over to Karen’s house. I am determined to get in that girl’s house so that I can see what else she might need help with.”
“I second the motion for the blackberry cobbler a la mode! That’s a wonderful idea, Aunt Joanne. But you don’t have to do it to get into Karen’s house to find out what else she might need.”
“Why not?”
“Because I already found out.”
“When did you do that?”
“When I stopped by her house earlier this week.”
“You stopped by Karen’s house earlier this week?”
“Yep.”
“Are you going to tell me why, or am I going to have to hold this blackberry cobbler hostage?”
“On no! No hostage-taking allowed! I’ll confess the whole thing! I mentioned to someone at work that you and I were helping a single mom and her kids with groceries. And it just kind of snow-balled. A bunch of us got to talking about it, and between us we knew between us we know at least four single moms trying to raise children with little or no income. We all wanted to do something to help, but we didn’t really know enough about their situations to know how best to help. So, I stopped by Karen’s house, and told her what we had been discussing at work. I asked her to help me learn what kinds of needs single moms have, so that we could do something to help her and the others we knew. She was immediately interested in helping others in the same situation that she was experiencing. She invited me inside, and I was right. It is really bare in there. She had exactly two chairs for us to sit on. I held Augie on my lap, and Karen held her baby. Everything was sparkling clean, but nothing was new and the house needs a lot of work inside too. And you’re right. Karen is really smart. She had a lot of ideas about how a small group of people could help ease the burden on other single moms. She also told me about a widow woman living in the house behind her, who is a whole lot worse off than Karen is. And guess what?”
“What?”
“My supervisor, who is widow herself, took a big box of groceries to the widow that Karen mentioned. I guess the woman stood on her porch, and cried like a baby when she saw my supervisor with a box of free groceries! Some of the other people at work are taking groceries to the other single moms that we knew about. We also set up a committee to implement some of Karen’s other ideas! One guy even mentioned how hungry people are in some African countries. And wouldn’t you know it – another person in my department knows a missionary who is in Africa helping people learn how to grow enough food to feed themselves. Our committee is going to talk about how we can help there too!”
“He’s doing it again,” Joanne said.
“Who’s doing what again?”
“The Lord. He’s doing it again. He’s going to feed thousands, and he started with our small offering of loaves and fishes – the groceries we have taken to Karen! We’re living in the middle of a miracle!”
“Maybe that is what made Karen think of her best idea.”
“What idea was that?”
“Well, she said that we need to open this up to other people. The more people we get involved, the more people we can feed. She said we should involve people from area churches, and I thought it would be a good idea to get everybody together at some nice place that would be neutral territory for everyone, and that’s when Karen reminded me how much you love to entertain.”
“Uh oh, I think I know where this is going,” Joanne said.
“Karen said she would help you get your house ready, and if you wanted to bake some nice desserts or something, I would be happy to buy any baking supplies you need and do anything else you need help with.”
“Bill…… I would be delighted to add to the miracle Jesus is working! Karen’s right I love entertaining, and I love helping others even more!”
“You seem to enjoy baking too,” Bill volunteered.
“Yes, I will bake some desserts,” Joanne answered. “In fact, I already have a blackberry cobbler done.”
“Oh no! Augie would be very disappointed if he doesn’t get blackberry cobbler a la mode tonight!” Bill insisted.
“But he doesn’t even know it is coming.”
“Yes, but I’ll tell him! I sure wouldn’t want a four-year-old kid to miss out on enjoying blackberry cobbler a la mode. No telling how such a travesty of justice would warp his little four-year-old psyche.”
“Nor a thirty-two-year-old bachelor’s psyche either, I’m sure,” Joanne added. “And mentioning your bachelor status, you said a couple of times how smart Karen is. Have you noticed how cute Karen is too?”
Bill blushed bright red.
“Never mind,” Joanne continued, “you don’t have to answer that. I just wondered how far Jesus was going to spread this miracle, and I think I already know the answer.”
“We better hurry through the grocery, Aunt Joanne. We don’t want that blackberry cobbler to cool down too much.”
“Yes,” Joanne agreed, “Augie would certainly want it nice and warm before we add his a la mode to it – nice and warm – like your face.”
“So, Aunt Joanne, what’s the first item on that grocery list? Maybe we should buy some loaves of bread and a few fish.”
“Changing the subject, huh?” Joanne said. “But some bread and fish might be a good idea. God has a proven track record with those.”
“I hope he can do the same with blackberry cobbler,” Bill added.
Questions for Meditation, Discussion or Preaching
Copyright 2020. Robert D. Ingram, 32746 Jourden Rd., Albany, Ohio 45710 (dr.bobingram@gmail.com). Used by permission.
