What Can We Learn From a Measly Quarter?

Internet savvy panhandlers, please avert your eyes. My husband will turn around on the highway to buy a meal for someone alongside the road. He used to pick up hitchhikers quite frequently, until I convinced him that he had a responsibility to stay alive for his family. (Right, honey?)

I just want to let you know that he is a giver, and I thought about him today. I was returning a shopping cart at Aldi's for my deposited quarter when a man approached me offering to take my cart. Aldi frequenters know that this is a common practice to "save" us all from the trouble of operating the deposit mechanism. However, when I happily gave the man my cart and asked for my quarter, he responded that he was just trying to be helpful.

I explained that I could return my own cart for the retrieval of my quarter and proceeded. But I was praying and thinking, wondering if he needed a cart, but didn't have a quarter. Or maybe he just needed the quarter. When he came near me to let me know that (again) he was just trying to be helpful, I put the retrieved coin in his hand. He thanked me at least twice. But I returned to the van with an uneasy feeling.

Obviously, he was "working" the shopping carts for quarters. And sure enough as I pulled out of the parking lot, I saw him approaching an elderly couple that was almost done unloading their cart.

I told 10 year old Chase what had happened, and he seemed a little concerned. But thinking out loud, I told him that obviously this man needs some money for something. It might be food, but it might be alcohol or drugs. He needs it so badly, that he's trying to get quarters one at a time from unsuspecting people. I think the unsuspecting is what bothered me. I felt protective of the older couple, afraid that they would be taken advantage of and too polite to ask for their quarter. (Which he had now).

Minimum wage in our state is $6.65 an hour. I had to research that. So to "earn" minimum wage, this man would have to hustle around 26.6 carts per hour. So, Chase and I prayed for the man that needed money that desperately. We also prayed that he would know Jesus, because that is what he needs most of all.

We picked up Rachel and told her the story. This made her really explore some questions she was having, because this morning she had just memorized Luke 6:27-30.
6:27
"But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you,
6:28
bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
6:29
If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic.
6:30
Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back.
6:31
Do to others as you would have them do to you. "

We had a great discussion about how to know when to give. How to respond to someone who steals. I didn't have all the answers. I may have been wrong in some of my answers, but we turned to scripture, a good application, and talked it over together.