I was on my way to St. Edward’s University last night for another meeting about our new website, coming soon in October. I was going to miss out on the lovely dinner Davide was serving her brother, S. Michael and a new Hashem’s House friend, Bud, who was helping them bring our new double oven to the Ranch from Cedar Creek. (see oven at left…Davide just taught me how to attach photos…expect more photos to be attached in the future). I had just picked up barbeque at The Salt Lick and left it in the Treif Safe for them to enjoy! For those of you who don’t know Texas Barbeque, The Salt Lick, as seen on Rachel Ray’s $40-a-Day, is one of Texas’ finest, maybe even the US’ finest barbeque restaurants and it is about 4 miles past the Ranch on FM 1826. (That’s FM — farm to market road). Knowing I wasn’t going to get supper at home I stopped for a turkey sandwich with lots of veggies on it and an ice tea. I had already grabbed a cold Snapple from the Treif Safe (which is our only non-kosher refrig. and is kept in the garage where it can be both Treif…non-kosher…and safe…for things like cold drinks for the guys who come and do our lawn or spray for pests or clean our pool). Here in Texas, you can never have enough ice tea. It wasn’t a particularly glamorous dinner but it was just what I felt like having.
As I came to a stop light on E.290 just before the turn onto S. Congress heading toward town and St. Ed’s I saw a man standing at the corner with a panhandler’s sign which read “homeless, lonely and hungry”. Well, I couldn’t do anything about his homelessness — nor much about his loneliness except to wave as I passed and shout ‘G-d Bless You’ as I drove by, BUT I could do something about his hunger. I opened my window and held the sandwich bag out the window. As he ran towards my car, I reached for the cold Snapple as well and handed them both to him with a smile and a ‘G-d Bless You’ as well. I continued on to St. Ed’s cataloging in my head what I might eat for dinner once I got home from the meeting.
I was the first one at the meeting, therefore I was the first one to meet with the website design manager, therefore the first one to get out of the meeting at 6:30 instead of 8! And home I went, enjoying the ice tea I had bought with the turkey sandwich. When I got home Davide, S. Michael and Bud had not arrived yet with the new double oven. They arrived shortly thereafter and managed to get the oven into the dining room where it will rest until Kurt, our extremely talented carpenter-on-call, will install it where the old oven now sits. After everyone washed up barbeque was served! And I was there to enjoy not only the barbeque, but the company of two of my children and a new friend. Bud remarked that he really enjoyed “breaking bread” with us. He is a kind and friendly man who had told us he was a Christian. And, we in turn, had shown him the synagogue and explained that we were Jews. And there we sat, all four of us, strangers just hours ago, now enjoying a meal, enjoying our common and uncommon histories and just being together in a warm and friendly way.
Bud left and then Davide left with S. Michael to take him back to his jeep, which they had left at his workplace earlier. After I did the dishes, I sat in my recliner with another glass of ice tea and reflected on my day. I smiled to myself as I realized I had given away the dinner I had wanted and got instead something even better…a delicious dinner shared with people I love and a new friend to boot. How divine!
Give away something today and watch for how Hashem surprises you with something even better!
Shabbat Shalom!
With many blessings and great love for all of us,
Rebba Raine
