If by chance you have read the book Praying for Strangers, you can save three minutes and skip this moat. That is because I am bouncing off of a chapter in it. "Chapter" is a bit overstated, since most are only a fistful of pages. They are more like ride-in-the-elevator sized chats. Start talking when the doors close and finish when they open. Only six floors. 

The author, River Jordan, has taken on the personal challenge of praying for a stranger each day. I have too, with the modulation that I pray for friends. One evening as she and her husband were out to dinner they became aware of the couple at the next table. He seemed to be nearly blind, and slow in his reaction time. River wanted to sidle up to them with her well oiled intro. But she was weary and didn't make it. 

The elderly couple left the restaurant before they did, and when River and her husband finally drove away they saw them at a bus stop. Long past the last run of the day. It was clear that today's prayer was light on words and heavy on action. She rolled down the window and asked where they were headed. They ended up driving them to a hotel. Make that four, since the first three had no vacancies. The man was not quick on his feet and getting them into the lobby and settled in took substantially longer than she had mentally agreed to when they decided to be Good Samaritans. After handing the receptionist some cash, and a plea to take care of them, River and her husband went home. 

In the morning she wondered if she should go back, get them to the right bus, call someone who knows them. Yet she felt as if she had been there to pick up the baton, and that God in His intricate plan already had a sequence of people in mind to pass the rod of comfort. 

The miracle is that in opening her attention to the needs of others, she didn't break the chain.