By Beverly Lomosad
Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done. – Proverbs 19:17, NIV
One spring day, a young boy ended up at a small farm house to ask for a drink of water while tramping about the farmland and woods of Pennsylvania. A girl answered his knock and brought him a glass of fresh milk. He asked how much he owed her for the milk, and the girl replied, “You don’t owe me anything. Mother taught us to never accept payment for an act of kindness.” Years later, their paths crossed again. She fell ill, and doctors in her small town, baffled by her medical condition, sent her to the city for a specialist care. The young boy is now Dr. Howard Kelly (1858-1943), who became one of the four founding doctors of Johns Hopkins, the first medical research university in the United States.
The mention of the patient’s town piqued the interest of Dr. Kelly, who then took on the case. He went to great lengths to do everything he could to make sure she got well. Sure enough, after four months, she had totally recovered and was ready to leave the hospital. Dr. Kelly’s keen personal interest in the case included asking the hospital’s business office to pass the bill to him. Just before the bill was brought into the patient’s room, he scribbled a note on it that said, “Paid in full with a glass of milk.”
Interestingly, the Bible discusses kindness – the dispensing of it – within the financial milieu, akin to the giving away of money by one who has it to another who lacks and, more importantly, needs it. God, who is a debtor to no one, considers a gesture of kindness done for the poor, understood as those without the capacity to pay back, as debt owed in His account. And to the giver of kindness, God promises He will reward it in return (Proverbs 19:17). Kindness, therefore, always begets kindness in the context that it will never go unnoticed by God, who makes sure it is rewarded. Dr. Kelly came from a family of means, and the general definition of “poor” didn’t befit him at all. But who are the poor but those with unmet needs, big or small. Take a need, vary its size and name, and a composite portrait of the poor emerges. Against a backdrop of a myriad of needs that exist out there waiting to be met, Jesus said that kindness given by one to another is kindness done to him (Matthew 25:44-45).
CALL TO ACTION
A life with God starts with a relationship with Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior.
- PRAY OUT LOUD: “Father in heaven, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. I believe that he died on the cross for my sins. I ask you to forgive me of all of my sins. I believe in my heart that God raised Jesus from the dead and confess with my mouth that Jesus is my Savior and Lord. Amen.”
- WHAT’S NEXT: Be part of a good, Bible-based church.