The
story starts out where she, Beth, is sitting at an airport terminal,
waiting
to board a plane. She was sitting there with several other people
who were
also waiting, whom she did not know. As she waited, she pulled out
her Bible
and started reading. All of a sudden she felt as if the people
sitting there
around her, were looking at her. She looked up, but realized that
they were
looking just over her head, in the direction right behind her. She
turned around
to see what everyone was looking at, and when she did, she saw a
stewardess
pushing a wheelchair, with the ugliest old man sitting in it, that
she had ever
seen before. She said he had this long white hair that was all
tangled and such a
mess. His face was really, really wrinkled, and he didn't look
friendly at all. She
said she didn't know why, but she felt drawn to the man, and thought
at first
that God wanted her to witness to him. In her mind she said she was
thinking,
"Oh, God, please, not now, not here." No matter what she
did, she couldn't get
the man off of her mind, and all of a sudden she knew what God
wanted her to
do. She was supposed to brush this old man's hair. She went and
knelt down
in front of the old man, and said "Sir may I have the honor of
brushing your
hair for you?" He said "What?" She thought, "Oh
great, he's hard of hearing."
Again, a little louder, she said, "Sir, may I have the honor of
brushing your hair
for you?" He answered, "If you are going to talk to me,
you are going to have
to speak up, I am practically deaf." So this time, she was
almost yelling, "Sir
may I please have the honor of brushing your hair for you?"
Everyone was
watching to see what his response would be. The old man just looked
at her
confused, and said "Well, I guess if you really want to."
She said, "I don't
even have a brush, but I thought I would ask anyway." He said,
"look in the
bag hanging on the back of my chair, there is a brush in
there." So she got the
brush out and started brushing his hair. (She has a little girl with
long hair, so
she has had lots of practice getting tangles out, and knew how to be
gentle
with him.) She worked for a long time, until every last tangle was
out. Just
as she was finishing up, she heard the old man crying, and she went
and put
her hands on his knees, kneeling in front of him again looking
directly into his
eyes, and said "Sir, do you know Jesus?" He answered,
"Yes, of course I
know Jesus. You see, my bride told me she couldn't marry me unless I
knew
Jesus, so I learned all about Jesus, and asked Him to come into my
heart many
years ago, before I married my bride." He continued, "You
know, I am on my
way home to go and see my bride. I have been in the hospital for a
long time,
and had to have a special surgery in this town far from my home. My
bride
couldn't come with me, because she is so frail herself." He
said, "I was so
worried about how terrible my hair looked, and I didn't want her to
see me
looking so awful, but I couldn't brush my hair, all by myself."
Tears were
rolling down his cheeks, as he thanked Beth for brushing his hair.
He thanked
her over and over again. She was crying, people all around
witnessing this
were crying, and as they were all boarding the plane, the
stewardess, who
was also crying, stopped her, and asked, "Why did you do
that?" And right
there was the opportunity, the door that had been opened to share
with
someone else, the love of God.
We
don't always understand God's ways, but be ready, He may use us to
meet the need of someone else, like He met the need of this old man,
and in that moment, also calling out to a lost soul who needed to
know about His love.
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