I saw him down the road; he didn’t seem
To have enough to help himself least of all
Help another but he was needy so I stopped.
I could, so I helped. Not far from there I tripped
I fell. I thought I’d die where I fell, far away
From all the help I know. But I heard footsteps,
I saw him stop in front of me, I sensed him
Reach out to me, I raised my hands, he lifted me.
It was not until I was up that I realized,
It is the needy fellow I bailed a while ago.

Early in the week, I noticed that one of my favorite sandals was begging for a cobbler’s attention. There’s a shop close to my workplace where a shoemaker attends my needs and that of several others in the area. I have noticed that in the evenings, other cobblers congregate there for prayers and catch up it seems. Well, I am not that good with faces so the only face I know is the face of the one that runs the shop per time. I am not that frequent a visitor but I pass the shop on way to and from work whenever I choose not to drive, which can be quite often hence the enhanced familiarity.

I stop at the shop sometimes to deliver little gifts to my shoemaker friend. One of the evenings, I mentioned the ailing sandal, and that I will drop it off on my way the next day. The next evening, I returned with the shoe but my friend was not in his shop. There were several others there and one of them offered to fix the sandal for me. Suddenly it dawned on me that I had no cash on me. It is a norm with me; I dress up and head out without money a lot of times. Grace helps me out ever so often but I also know my limits.

I mentioned I had no cash on me but the shoemaker continued to prepare to fix the sandal. I could not allow my him to fix my sandal because I couldn’t pay him immediately. If it was the regular guy, I could pay him anytime I passed that way but these friends come and go. Besides, they don’t make much from shoe making so I didn’t want to rob him of his due wage if he worked my sandal. Eventually, I told him I would rather wait for my shoemaker to come since it is better to owe the person I know and see more often than one I barely knew and rarely saw. The new man agreed.

After a while, he turned back to my sandal to fix it. I reminded him about the absence of payment and he nodded and continued. As I tried to persist in my position, he raised his head with a smile and asked, “You bring gift here yesterday, ba?” Wow! He had been there the previous day when I brought the gift and I knew it not. There were a couple of them there chatting among themselves but I don’t understand their language so I couldn’t make sense of what they were chatting about. I didn’t know which of them was or wasn’t there yesterday but it was touching that this fellow who needed every money he could make was willing to take a risk on me, with a smile, because he recognized me from last night.

It is touching how what goes around comes around. We often think we are the ones helping and we have no clue how soon we ourselves will be in need of help, and who would be there at that point in time to bail us. Fixing my sandal that evening wasn’t critical but it could have been a more pressing issue. It is humbling to know that the world we live in is so small we are known by those who we don’t know and who may not even appear to know who we are. We are touched by what we do to those we know and those we don’t because every seed, be it good or bad, comes right back to us. Life is so complex and yet so very simple that anybody, anywhere can be the help you need at specific points in time.

What did that say to me? Watch it, you never know! You never know who is watching. You never know how far a thought, a word, a deed, could go. You never know the extent of the impacts. You never know when you will be in the pit and would need a hand to climb out, just any available hand.

Glory!