"Welcoming an Angel?"

JMJ.

I had to run into the hospital today.  Just picked up a prescription, but I ran up to the endoscopy unit where I used to work to say "hi" to anyone still at work but everyone had gone home.  I passed a guy in the hall who was walking out.  Hobbling, actually.  He was probably about forty but looked sixty and was barely mobile with a cane.  He looked as if walking were the ultimate torture and I admit to wondering what had happened.

Well, some twenty minutes later I'd completed all I had to do and collected my car from the parking garage.  I hadn't gone more than a quarter mile from the hospital when I passed this poor guy making his painful way.  I had not but passed him when my dear guardian angel, Cornelius, kinda poked me in the ribs to get my attention so I turned the car around and headed back.

I don't normally make a point of picking up strangers but I doubted that even if he meant me ill that he could do anything serious.  Frankly, he looked like a good stiff wind could blow him over.  I hollered out the window to ask if he needed a ride and he nodded with apparent relief.  He labouriously got in and stuck out his hand and introduced himself as Kevin.  I asked how far he was going and it turned out to be right up the street.  Turns out he'd been involved in a bad accident 8 1/2 years ago and he said most of his spine was either fused or metal. 

I told him that my wife has M.S. and that I try to be aware of others with disabilities which was why I picked him up.  As he was getting out of the car he told me how much he appreciated the lift and said, "I'm sorry about your wife."  Now the reason for this story is not to make myself out to be someone I'm not but to point out how sometimes heaven puts folks in our paths as an opportunity for us to do something nice for others.  Was he an angel I ministered to?  I doubt it.  I'm not that fortunate.  But he COULD have been.  I remember thinking how heavy his cross seemed to be and how heavy my wife's is.  And then I thought, "If I want to see heavy, all I have to do is look at a crucifix."