“In this world, who can do a thing, will not; And who would do it, cannot, I perceive.” (Browning)
Read the story of “The Good Samaritan” Luke 10:25-37
March 8, 2021 - On the day before the Texas great Snow-Ice Storm of 2021, Pam and I drove to Atwoods in Nacogdoches to buy bird food. We parked in front of a stack of bundled firewood about five sticks to a bundle and I waited in the car while Pam was in the store. Suddenly as if they knew that we were about to be hit by a winter storm the next day, a large number of husky, young men drove up and feverishly began to snatch up these small bundles of oak.
Then through my window I saw an elderly white-haired woman slowly stumbling to the wood. Her steps were short and unsure, and she trembled as she bent over and tried to lift a bundle that she could not hold. Meanwhile, the steady flow of men walked around her as if she were invisible. There I sat, unable to get out of the car without my walker. My shouts of “Help her!” went unheard as she stumbled away with a bundle of wood.
When Pam came back, I tearfully told her what I had seen, and the old lady slowly disappeared in the parking lot behind us. “I was Browning’s man that “would do a thing but could not’” I said. “And all those thoughtless men could have done a thing but would not.” Where did this lady go with her bundle of wood and did her five sticks keep her warm when the massive storm brought the temperature to three degrees in Nacogdoches? That eighty-year-old lady was very unfortunate. The Levite and Priest passed her by and could have helped her.
But the Good Samaritan was in the car ... and could not.
