A Strong-Arming Saint of The Lord

There is a little old lady at my church who is neither little, nor old, despite her diminutive size and 80 plus years of age. She still tap dances. She still runs an annual show to raise funds for veterans and she sells poppies on both Memorial Day and Veteran's Day. She is also a great supporter of my step-mom's school, helping out with a program there called The Graham Cracker Fairy. But beyond all that, this church saint is also a master at strong-arming people into doing the Lord's work.

Case in point.

This weekend, my step-mom received a call from this saint. She had been in a darling boutique where they sold children's clothing and was so enamored of the wonderful outfits that she asked the owner if she had any clothes they were giving away - for the children at my step-mom's school. She had arranged for one or two bags of clothes to be picked up on Sunday and all my step-mom had to do was show up and pick them up.

Now school gets out this week, so my step-mom was a bit hesitant, but our dear church saint wouldn't take no for an answer. So my step-mom made arrangements to pick up the clothes.

On Sunday, she shows up at the little boutique and finds a half dozen people standing outside waiting for her to arrive. They are each carrying two or three bags full of children's clothes. My step-mom is shocked. She was expecting a couple of bags at most. She gets out of the car and asks the first person where she can find the church lady. The guy gives her a blank look, "Who?" "The woman who gave you the clothes?" "Oh... she's over in the parking lot."

So my step-mom goes over to the parking lot and discovers that this little old lady has figured out a way to block all of the cars in the parking lot from leaving. She has then asked each driver to help her carry the clothes over to my step-mom's car before being allowed to drive away. Six perfect strangers help my step-mom load more than a dozen bags of children's clothes into her car - just so they'll be allowed to drive away.

I'd like to say that this is one-time only behavior, but I'm afraid not. If this wonderful saint of our church asked a mountain if it could please help her by moving ten feet to the right, the mountain would get up and move ten feet to the right and would feel good about doing it. Some saints are just like that.