Angels Unaware

It was a rainy night in New Orleans;

At a bus station in the town,

I watched a young girl weeping

As her baggage was taken down.

It seems she’d lost her ticket

Changing buses in the night

She begged them not to leave her there

With no sign of help in sight.

The bus driver had a face of stone

And his heart was surely the same.

“Losing your ticket’s like losing cash money” he said,

and left her in the rain.

Then an old Indian man stood up

And blocked the driver’s way

And would not let him pass before

He said what he had to say.

“How can you leave that girl out there?

Have you no God to fear?

You know she had a ticket.

You can’t just leave her here.

You can’t put her out in a city

Where she doesn’t have a friend.

You will meet your schedule,

But she might meet her end.”

The driver showed no sign

That he’d heard or even cared

About the young girl’s problem

Or how her travels fared.

So the old gentleman said,

“For her fare I’ll pay.

I’ll give her a little money

To help her on her way.”

He went and bought the ticket

And helped her to her place

And helped her put her baggage

In the overhead luggage space.

“How can I repay,” she said,

“the kindness you’ve shown tonight?

We’re strangers who won’t meet again

A mere ‘ ‘thank you ‘ doesn’t seem right.”

He said, “What goes around comes around.

This I’ve learned with time

What you give, you always get back;

What you sow, you reap in kind.

Always be helpful to others

Always be helpful to others

For by being kind to strangers,

We help angels unaware.

–via Glenna Richardson, West Side church of Christ, Salem, VA