A Bowl Of Stew

And whoever gives one of these little ones only a cup of cold water in the name of a disciple, assuredly, I say to you, he shall by no means lose his reward. Matthew 10:42

Forty years ago today the temperature on Grenada was at the opposite end of the thermometer from what we have here this morning. From the tales of this week, I saved for this morning one of an act of Christian kindness very much in line with what Jesus said in our verse for today. This was not done by me, but for me in that place of heat and war.

The first day on Grenada the fire team was sent way up the hill to man a checkpoint near the governor's mansion. (Everything on Grenada seemed to be either way up or way down, making the truck rides every bit as hair-raising as most any combat can do.) I do recall that first night there trying to sleep in the heat and rain in the open beneath a number of houses that could hide any number of ill-intentioned folks with rifles. The next day my fire team was recalled to the battalion area to guard the perimeter in a bit of a foxhole that didn't quite meet the ideal we had been taught. Little wonder, as Grenada was mostly rock, and I dutifully stood up to my knees in that rocky foxhole. You should know that quite a bit of a Marine's body will fit into one of those when a couple of rifle shots were heard from the hill overlooking us on that line.

A couple of days of mostly boredom went by, then the lady who had watched me for much of that time from her porch across the road came out of her house with a bowl and spoon and gave it to me. The bowl was of course filled with some kind of stew or soup. I did not point my rifle at her and give the 'halt who goes there' challenge as I had been trained; there are times when a little discretion is called for and this seemed to fit. This stew was delicious! I do not think it was all down to the circumstance, nor by comparison to those picnic lunches we had packed in the funny red-brown plastic bags (MRE's). Soup or stew, it was just really good stuff.

The charity was in that she did not have to do that for me. The lady may have wished all of us gone so that things could get back to normal for her and her neighbors. She did this thing though, and I never learned her name. I did take the bowl and spoon back with my thanks to her on that porch, thus leaving my post for a brief time. I'm sure my fire team leader saw it along with officers who were keeping an eye out for us, but no one called me down for it. In trying to keep it short, I have gone on at length, but here is my story of a kind act by a lady in Grenada who certainly followed the teaching of Jesus in this moment forty years ago.

May God bless her today as He keeps her reward by His promise!

Bucky