Close to Nowhere

I know there are many bad people in our community, our town, our state, our country -- there are also many, many good, normal people. Tuesday, June 6, I met a truly honest man and I was and am truly humbled and amazed.

A couple weeks ago I traded my shiny (but dirty) black Volkswagen Routan van in for a shiny black Nissan Rogue with almost all the bells and whistles. And the windows are all that nice dark color that keeps the sun out. That’s important when you haul your great-grandson around in the back seat sometimes.

But back to that Tuesday. I was at my computer working away, and a guy walks in and asks whose little black car that is in alley.

He’d been weedeating at the building across the alley from where Barbara and I have parked for 30-plus years. The weedeater caught a rock and guess where that rock landed? If you guessed on the nice, dark glass on the rear door of my shiny new car you’d have guessed right. That glass was shattered all around the ground and in my car.

The man who’d been weedeating was very apologetic. He was really sorry. And he said he’d pay to have it fixed.

We all came back in the office and Barry the editor called Foster’s Auto Body and Glass and we got an estimate. The very honest man asked what time we closed and then said he’d be back.

Within an hour, that man was back in the office with the cash to fix my window. And he was still saying how sorry he was.

That man and I are going to pray for each other. In fact, I am going to spend a good amount of time thanking God and telling everyone that I have met a truly honest, nice person and I am awed.

It would have been so easy for him to have just gotten in his car and driven away and no one would have ever known who did it. I’d have been heart-broken and would have had to pay for the window myself.

But I think my honest man would have known. I think he would have been guilty and worried about it. He seems the type.

I’m comparing my honest man to my father-in-law, Clifford Jones. Clifford was the nicest, most decent and honest man I’ve ever known. I’ve never met his equal – until Tuesday of last week.

I believe my honest man is the kind of honest man Clifford was. Thank you God, for the reminder that there is much in this ole world to marvel at.