In the winter of 1972, some 38 years ago, I found myself hitchhiking through the city of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I had no money, food, shelter or even a place to lay my head. In fact, I had no idea why I was there. I was cold and entered a small mom & pop store on a corner street and asked the young female clerk if I could sweep the front of her store for a loaf of bread and milk.
I was dirty and must have looked so terrible to this young woman. She told me that this store belonged to her father and that she couldn't give me anything in the store because it all belonged to him. However, she told me she was getting off work real soon and that I could go with her to her place and enjoy a meal, take a bath and listen to her boyfriend play the guitar.
I told her OK and when she got off work she drove me to her place. I took a hot bath, had a hot meal and was able to spend the warm night there with her and her boyfriend. I felt so serene that it didn't take long before I had fallen asleep from the sound of her boyfriend quietly playing his guitar. Not only was I blessed by God but also blessed by these two young people who didn't look at me with disgust and saw me as a human being in need.
The next morning, she provided me a hot breakfast and then she and her college girlfriends were kind enough to drive me to a good place for me to hitchhike down south towards highway 80.
To this day I don't even know the name of that young woman who trusted me, fed me, provided me a bath and a warm place to stay for that one special night in a place I surely didn't belong. This could arguably be the greatest single human experience I ever had in my life.
I wonder how the future was for her life and if she even remembered the young man she assisted on that cold winter night when all he was looking for was something simple to eat and she unselfishly provided him a lifetime memory of thanksgiving?
