"Welcome Home"

Standing in line at the register of the famous Walmart. The line is long, but I am next. Time must have frozen while I was mentally going through my shopping list making sure I got everything I needed. Finally it hit me. "Good grief I've been standing here forever!!" I looked up and noticed the guy in front of me handing the employee something he intended on buying. I assumed the price was incorrect (this was the second register I was in because the first had some confusion on the cost of an item being purchased). Finally my thoughts cleared and I overheard "Welcome home. What are your plans now?" I remembered those same words spoken to me a few years ago. I always answered with a fake smile in my attempt to be positive and sugarcoat my circumstance. "Where ever God leads me", or "I'm praying and patiently waiting for God's plan and timing". For the most part, that was true, but on the inside my heart was broken and I cried out to God everyday. "Not again. Why God? This isn't how it was supposed to be. Will I ever get it right? How are you going to fix this? When is it going to get better?" I realized the guy in front of me was putting back items he couldn't afford. I saw through his smile as he tried to be excited about what's next. He starts a new job tomorrow. As he made excuses for why his card was being declined, I couldn't stop thinking about the people who stepped in during my struggles and loved, cared for and supported me. Before he was able to grab something else from his purchases that he couldn't pay for, I swiped my debit card and paid for what was left. I hope he sleeps peacefully tonight ready to succeed at his new job tomorrow. I pray when sadness sinks in, he will smile because of tonight. I pray when his life is back on track, he will remember tonight and share his light in someone else's darkness. Most importantly, tonight I am stuck with the employee's words as he left. "You've been blessed. Now go use your blessing to help someone else." She has said that before to other customers. She has perfected her "saying". Tonight was no surprise to her, because she obviously has seen it before. And more than once. We live a dark world. The news we hear on Tv and listen to on the radio can shake our world. But maybe, JUST MAYBE, this world is becoming a little better everyday from those who never make the news.