Small Acts of Kindness

I never knew her name.  I didn’t even realize she was in my class until we stood outside the classroom doors, waiting to enter for our final exam.  I don’t even remember now what she looks like, although I want to say she had her dark hair pulled up in a bun and wore glasses.

All I remember was that she gave me a mechanical pencil.

It was the end of the fall semester of my senior year.  I was in a lot of pain from Lyme Disease that day.  I’d just come from an internship meeting which had soured before it began.  I was doing all I could to keep it together.

I’d been so focused on the meeting before that I’d forgotten to bring any pencils with me.  And when I saw the few girls studying outside the classroom doors, I realized my mistake.  But it was too late to go back and get a pencil.  So I asked if I could borrow one.

The girls looked at each other, and one of them finally checked the lead in her mechanical pencils, and offered me one.  I thanked her, told her I would try to find her after the test to give it back.  She just nodded.  Did she realize what I didn’t, how futile that would be in a class of a couple hundred?

I wasn’t able to return it.  I quickly lost track of her in the sea of students, even though I tried to sit near her so I could return it.  I hadn’t even thought of her in years.  But I thought of her the other day, and I pray that wherever she is, she realizes just how great her little act of kindness was that day.

You see, she didn’t know me.  She didn’t know what I’d been through.  I would have never known if she’d kept her other mechanical pencil hidden.  She could’ve easily just shrugged and said she didn’t have one.  But she didn’t.  Instead, she chose to help me, a stranger.

That seemingly small thing, giving me a mechanical pencil, made such a difference in my day.  It made me smile, gave me the comfort that, even though I felt so sick, even though my meeting had ended horribly, even though I had failed to come prepared, I now had what I needed to take this test.  God could get me through it, and He had started by using this girl to provide a pencil for me.

It reminds me of Jesus’ parable of the Good Samaritan.  A man was robbed, beaten, left for dead.  Neither a priest nor a Levite, his own countrymen, would help him.  But instead a stranger, a Samaritan, took it upon himself to help the man, to provide care for this man who came from a people who despised him, until the man was well enough to return home (Luke 10:25-37).

What Jesus described here required much more sacrifice than giving up a mechanical pencil, but the spirit is the same.  Helping those who need your help, whether you know them or not.  I was a stranger, and yet that girl was willing to help me.  Even though her action might seem really insignificant, it made a great impact in my day.

I wonder how many opportunities to be kind I’ve neglected, like today when I could’ve offered a lady a trash-free shopping cart and I didn’t.  How many times has there been a small act of kindness I could do, that wouldn’t have even impacted my life much, but I ignored it because I didn’t want to be bothered.  How many times have I let my actions be dictated by my selfishness instead of selflessness?

The pencil in the picture isn’t the one she gave me.  I lost that long ago.  But I hope that each time we see a pencil, it reminds us of how much a seemingly insignificant act of kindness can impact someone’s life.

And if for some reason, you’re the girl who gave me that pencil, thank you.