My sister-in-law Julie was visiting, and we wanted to get together with our nephew Kirk who lives and teaches in Brooklyn. We arranged to meet for dinner at a restaurant in the Village, convenient for everyone by subway.
It was a busy enough place, and we had to wait 15 minutes for everybody to show up so we ended up at a table in the back near the kitchen.
The food was excellent and the waitress, a young woman who didn’t seem to need to write anything down, was friendly and knew just what to recommend on the menu.
We lingered and talked and lingered some more. Nobody made an effort to hurry us out, although it was a Sunday night and surely somebody would be waiting.
The bill came. I gave the waitress my credit card. Julie tried to pay but I said, “Nothing doing.” She and our nephew Kirk were our guests.
The bill came back. I add a good tip, signed it and left it at the table. We chatted some more. Then got up and headed out the door, thanking the hostess. Outside we said good-bye to Kirk and headed to the subway.
We had gone almost two blocks when I heard someone running after us, calling, “Excuse me, sir.” I turned around. It was the waitress from the restaurant.
“You left your credit card,” she said and handed it to me.
“Thanks so much,” I said, putting it in my wallet. I didn’t even have time to say, “How did you find us?” or “How did you know which way to turn?” She was already hurrying back to the busy restaurant.
I was left to consider her amazing kindness and alacrity. She could have so easily given the card to the hostess and let me discover a day or two (or three or four) later that it was missing…and then try to remember where I left it.
But she didn’t. She saw it. Picked it up. And ran out the door to find me.
Recently I’ve felt a bit overwhelmed with all the needs to pray for: the people suffering from the forest fires, the people rebuilding their lives from the devastating hurricanes, the horrible shooting in Las Vegas. Not to mention friends who have been struggling with cancer and have asked me to pray.
But then I think of that waitress. And I remember that whenever you see something that has gone wrong you can certainly pray and should pray.
And then you can do all you can to make it right. There was something truly angelic about that act.
