When You Least Expect It

When you least expect it, someone comes to your assistance. Even the worst moments can become better when an unexpected person does just the right thing at the right time.

I thought about his as I read a story about a third-grade classroom. From time to time I must share news I find on the Internet. No validity for its presence exists. What I do know, though, is that it causes one to stop and think. And for me, it was the right lesson at the right time.

A nine-year-old boy was sitting at his desk. His feet and the front of his pants were wet. It was an accident. He didn’t even realize it until it was too late.

What is he going to do? If he stands up, no one will ever forget this moment. He
isn’t in preschool anymore. This cannot be an okay thing to do. The boys will pick on him forever; the girls will never speak to him again.

This moment in third grade could haunt him all throughout his school-age years, maybe even beyond.

He sits quietly, wishing his heart would stop. He puts his head down and prays. It is an emergency. He needs help from above.

He suspects the teacher knows. She is headed in his direction. How can this go well?

Just then, Susie, a classmate of his, stand up and gets the fishbowl. It is full of water. She walks near the young boy and spills it down the front of him. She claims she tripped.

The boys acts upset, but is thanking Susie and God the entire time.

He has become the subject of sympathy, not ridicule. The teacher helps him clean up and allows him to change into gym shorts while his pants dry.

No one knows of his situation. An accident made it all better.

But, was it really an accident?

While the boy isn’t ridiculed, Susie is. Her classmates call her a clumsy. They ask why she even bothered the fish bowl.

She laughs it off. After all, being clumsy isn’t so bad.

As the day nears an end, the boy walks over to Susie. He whispers to ask her if she spilled the water on purpose. She whispers back that she wet her pants once too. She knew the ridicule.

No one else saw it. Only Susie. She didn’t use this opportunity to make a mockery of someone else. Instead, she helped them. She knew what was like to be in a similar situation.

May we see the opportunities around us when we least expect it. And, hopefully, we have the nerve to do good — just as Susie did.