The Rented Room

- Anonymous

Our house was directly across the street from the clinic entrance of Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore. We lived downstairs and rented the upstairs rooms to outpatients at the clinic.

One summer evening as I was fixing supper, there was a knock at the door. I opened it to see a truly awful looking man. "Why, he's hardly taller than my eight-year-old," I thought as I stared at the stooped, shriveled body. But the appalling thing was his face, lopsided from swelling, red and raw.

Yet his voice was pleasant as he said, "Good evening. I've come to see if you've a room for just one night. I came for a treatment this morning from the eastern shore, and there's no bus 'till morning."

He told me he'd been hunting for a room since noon but with no success; no one seemed to have a room. "I guess it's my face. I know it looks terrible, but my doctor says with a few more treatments..."

For a moment I hesitated, but his next words convinced me: "I could sleep in this rocking chair on the porch. My bus leaves early in the morning."

I told him we would find him a bed, but to rest on the porch. I went inside and finished getting supper. When we were ready, I asked the old man if he would join us. "No thank you. I have plenty." And he held up a brown paper bag.

When I had finished the dishes, I went out on the porch to talk with him a few minutes. It didn't take a long time to see that this old man had an oversized heart crowded into that tiny body.

He told me he fished for a living to support his daughter, her five children and her husband, who was hopelessly crippled from a back injury.

He didn't tell it by way of complaint; in fact, every other sentence was prefaced with a thanks to God for a blessing.

He was grateful that no pain accompanied his disease, which was apparently a form of skin cancer. He thanked God for giving him the strength to keep going.

At bedtime, we put a camp cot in the children's room for him. When I got up in the morning, the bed linens were neatly folded, and the little man was out on the porch.

He refused breakfast, but just before he left for his bus, haltingly, as if asking a great favor, he said, "Could I please come back and stay the next time I have a treatment? I won't put you out a bit. I can sleep fine in a chair."

He paused a moment and then added, "Your children made me feel at home. Grownups are bothered by my face, but children don't seem to mind." I told him he was welcome to come again.

And on his next trip he arrived a little after seven in the morning. As a gift, he brought a big fish and a quart of the largest oysters I had ever seen.

He said he had shucked them that morning before he left so that they'd be nice and fresh. I knew his bus left at 4 a.m., and I wondered what time he had to get up in order to do this for us.

In the years he came to stay overnight with us there was never a time that he did not bring us fish or oysters or vegetables from his garden.

Other times we received packages in the mail, always by special delivery; fish and oysters packed in a box of fresh young spinach or kale, every leaf carefully washed. Knowing that he must walk three miles to mail these and knowing how little money he had made the gifts doubly precious.

When I received these little remembrances, I often thought of a comment our next-door neighbor made after he left that first morning. "Did you keep that awful looking man last night? I turned him away! You can lose roomers by putting up such people!"

Maybe we did lose roomers once or twice. But, oh! If only they could have known him, perhaps their illness would have been easier to bear. I know our family always will be grateful to have known him; from him we learned what it was to accept the bad without complaint and the good with gratitude to God.

Recently I was visiting a friend who has a greenhouse. As she showed me her flowers, we came to the most beautiful one of all, a golden chrysanthemum, bursting with blooms.

But to my great surprise, it was growing in an old dented, rusty bucket. I thought to myself, "If this were my plant, I'd put it in the loveliest container I had!"

My friend changed my mind. "I ran short of pots," she explained, "and knowing how beautiful this one would be, I thought it wouldn't mind starting out in this old pail. It's just for a little while, till I can put it out in the garden."

She must have wondered why I laughed so delightedly, but I was imagining just such a scene in heaven. "Here's an especially beautiful one," God might have said when he came to the soul of the sweet old fisherman. "He won't mind starting in this small body."

All this happened long ago - and now, in God's garden, how tall this lovely soul must stand.

"The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart."
(1 Samuel 16:7b)

Friends are very special. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear and they share a word of praise.

Show your friends how much you care. Pass this on, and brighten someone's day.

Nothing will happen if you don't. But, if you do, someone might smile - because of you.

Related Pages

Christmas Pageant - The touching story of the "W" in Christmas.

Church Fundraisers - Church fund-raising through donor recognition - Christian fundraiser charity activities.

Church Fundraiser Ideas - Here are a dozen church fundraiser ideas for raising funds quickly - These are all easy church fund raisers with low costs and excellent results.

Christian Fundraising Events - Six ideas for Christian fundraising events - Church fundraisers that are fun, family-oriented, and raise funds fast.

Web Here

Ideas For Fundraisers

Art Raffle
Auction
Bake Sale
Band
Baseball
Bingo
Bowling
Bracelets
Brick
Candle
Candy
Candy Bar
Capital Campaign
Car Donation
Car Raffle
Car Wash
Cash Calendar
Casino Night
Cell Phone
Chair-ity Event
Charity
Charity Poker
Cheerleading
Cheesecake Calendar
Chinese Auction
Christian
Christian Event Ideas
Christmas Carols
Christmas Trees
Church
Church Festival
Church Fund Raisers
College
Cookbook
Cookie Dough
Corporate Grants
Cow Chip
Credit Card
Dance
Dance Team
Discount Cards
Donation Request
Donor Recognition
Earth Friendly
Easy
eBay
Event Tips
Events
Events - Part 1
Events - Part 2
Events - Part 3
Flower Bulbs
Flowers
Food Sales
For The Cure
Free
Fruit
Fun
Fundraising Sample
Gift Wrap
Golf Ball Drop Raffle
Golf Fundraiser
Golf Tournament
Grant Requests
Halloween
Healthy
Hockey
Home & Garden
Holiday Carnival
Individual
Inkjet Recycling
Internet
Jamba Juice
Jingle Bell Run
Jingle Bell Walk
Karaoke
Kathryn Beich
Krispy Kreme
Lip Sync
Location
Lollipop
Magazine
Mardi Gras
Merchant Plan
Mini Golf Tournament
Non-Profit
Pancake Breakfast
Photography
Pink Flamingo
Pizza
Pizza Hut
Political
Popcorn
Product Ideas
Promo
Publicity
Raffle
Raffle Prizes
Raffle Tickets
Relay For Life
Relay For Life Events
Rubber Duck
Sales Tips
Sample Thank You
School
Scratch Card
Scrip
Silent Auction Tips
Soccer
Softball
Spaghetti Dinner
101 Tips
Top Five
Tried & True
Tupperware
Valentines Day
Whiskey Tasting
Wine Tasting
Worlds Finest
Youth Group
Youth Sports