We were trimming hooves at a dairy when the topic of conversation turned to hard times. The hoof trimmer then told me about a personal hardship he’d endured that resulted in such heavy financial losses he didn’t know if he could continue the business. Then, he said, one of his customers contacted him, acknowledged the seriousness and pain of the situation, and bought the man a hoof-trimming rig, gave him the keys and wished him well. Just a good man, going about his life doing good.
Wow. Just wow. That’s, like, so beyond donating a can of goods to the local food pantry at the school Christmas concert or taking a donation tag off the church Christmas tree (although those count too). It was just so, so … right.
Last year, near Christmas, I was traveling through the Boise airport waiting for flights. I hadn’t really “caught” any Christmas spirit yet. In fact, I was feeling sorry for myself as I looked at all the decorating around the airport that I probably wouldn’t get done even around my house. It had decorated trees by every jet bridge (gaudy maybe, but festive). In the corner was a life-sized St. Nicholas – the Good King Wenceslas version. His ankle-length vermillion coat was trimmed in beaver furs, its opulence apparent.
But none of the decorations were doing much for my Christmas spirit. Then a willowy, white-haired elderly fellow pushed his wife’s wheelchair and found a seat near Gate B22. He attempted to make her comfortable – helped her off with her jacket, helped her open her (too expensive) airport breakfast snack, straightened her lap robe, went back for napkins, carried some items to the trash for her and twisted open her bottle of water. His only concern was making her comfortable – just a good man going about life doing good.
A few days later, as we were walking to the motel swimming pool with grandkids, a man and his son stopped us. They had two floaty-water-tube-thingys and were leaving that day but wouldn’t be able to take the inflatable tubes. He was just passing them along – if we needed them. It was such a small kindness – he was just good people, going about doing good to total strangers.
So go ahead, contribute to the local shelter, give to the giving tree and your food cans to the pantries; it’s all good. But when that list is all checked off, “let us do good unto all men” (Galatians 6:10 KJV) every day. It is just so, so … right.
Christ was born in the stable, and as he grew, he “went about doing good” (Acts 10:38). And, after all, His is the spirit we seek.
