Truly Thankful.....
Some may have heard me state this true story before, but it is well worth mentioning again if by chance you have not heard it.
Most know I dearly love the children of this world and especially so of those children that can not run and play due to handicaps in their lives. Last week I received a phone call from one of these kids I worked with at the Lions Camp in Kerrville, TX. and he just wanted to call and wish me a specially nice Thanksgiving. He said ever since I taught him how to use a metal detector from his wheelchair (which he thought was impossible) he has not felt the emptiness of watching so many of his friends and neighbors out playing when he could not. He told me that I had surely changed his life and that treasure hunting with the detector his parents bought for him is what he looks forward to everyday, rain or shine. Tommy is this fine young person's name and the reason I remember him so well, is for the very special coin he found (that we buried for the kids to find that day) while I was teaching him how to use the metal detector for the first time.
For this is the story I might have told you before: for at one of the FMDAC conventions several years ago in New Jersey, I had stood before the crowd and mention our work with the handicap children here in Texas. Also I had ask for anyone wanting to, please donate your foreign coins to be use to hide for these special kids during the summers of their visits to the Lions Camp. For a dozen metal detectors had been dontated to the camp for this activity to continue as a scheduled event every year for all the children visiting the camp.
After my announcement for foreign coins at the FMDAC convention, I felt a tug at my pants leg while I was speaking to one of the vendors on the show floor. I looked down to see a very cute little girl I would guess to be approx. 4 to 5 years of age. I bent down to see what she wanted and she whispered in a very soft voice, "Mr. I want to give this for the kids at the camp", whereby she opened her little hand and had two foreign coins in it. She then told me, "I sorry, these are the only foreign coins I have in my collection", then she dropped them into my hand and ran off before I could say a word. I was so stunned by this precious little girl and her heart filled donation to the kids of the camp, that I searched for her the day and a half left of the convention and hunt and never found her so to say thanks.
Well, you guessed it, the coin Tommy dug that day was one of those the little girl gave me. As I told Tommy of this story of the little girl, tears started running down his cheek. Tommy vowed to never get rid of that coin, for it would forever be his lucky coin. Yes, when Tommy call to thank me and wish me a very special Thanksgiving this year, he told me he still keeps that coin on him all the time.
Tommy didn't know it, but he was my special Thanksgiving and so was that special little girl. When the world starts looking bad to me, I only need to see into my minds eye of these two very special children helping one another yet will never meet. As a grown adult, why is our hearts not in the place as the hearts of these young folks? We should love everyone, even those we have never met, for God created us all and did so with love in his heart. Keith Wills