My Modern Day Good Samaritan

I had intended to blog about this story since it happened a couple weeks ago but never got around to it, however, it's too good not to share so here goes:
A couple weekends ago the kids and I went to Charlotte to see my parents and for me to work a shift at the hospital We did some fun Christmasy things including a horse and carriage ride around the Billy Graham library and making Christmas cookies. I had to work Saturday night and was supposed to get off at 9am, then drive to Winston-Salem to Parkway Chapel where Steven was preaching at 11. My parents got the kids ready in their Sunday clothes and Mom met me at work so we could switch cars and get on the road. We squeezed into Steven's car since my van was getting fixed (we hit a deer a couple weeks before that), 2 car seats and a booster in between is pretty tight in a compact car, however, I thought we were doing good as we cleared Charlotte without any traffic or kid fights. My phone rang about Concord and it was my boss from the hospital - she said "Good news, Sallie, we found your wallet!" Until that time I didn't even know I had lost it. I looked at my gas gauge and realized I wasn't going to make it to Winston, so I had to think of someone to call that wasn't already in church to get their credit card number. If I had only taken my late Grandaddy's advice and kept my "emergency $20" that he used to make sure all of his grandchildren had, I wouldn't have been in my predicament - but unfortunately there was no source of money in the car. Thankfully I reached my mother-in-law who texted me her card numbers, and the kids and I piled out of the car around Kannapolis at a gas station. I took my name badge with me as "identification" and thought for sure they would let me use the card number to put some gas in. The man at the counter, however, said no and wouldn't budge on the policy. I'm not sure if it was the situation itself, the recent school tragedy that had just happened in Conneticut, or being pregnant, but I just stood in the gas station with my kids and completely lost it. This kind man came up to me and asked me what was wrong - unfortunately I can hardly talk when I cry like that so it took me awhile to explain my situation. As soon as he realized I just needed gas he gave the man at the counter a 20 and proceeded to fill up my car. He talked to me about the Lord and knew we were headed to church - I told him I shared his faith and knew the Lord had provided through him. He wouldn't give me a phone number or address so I could re-imburse him but I do have his name so I'm going to try and look him up anyways. I loaded the kids up and cried about 20 more minutes on the road. Poor Sadie, she had tried to give me money for gas (she had about $1.50 in change in her little purse) and she started crying when I melted down. Through my tears I tried to explain how the Lord had provided for us in our need, and that my tears were happy tears, but it still took her some time to calm down. We made it to church with a few extra minutes and Steven opened his message with my story.
As I reflected on the day, the man did not have to come over and talk to me, much less give me 20 dollars of his hard earned money, and it spoke volumes to me about how we should help each other out in times of need. I hope I make the most of the opportunities that I am given to help others out the way he helped me, strangers or friends (maybe it's easier to help those people we don't know - but I'm pretty sure we're supposed to help both). I'm sorry this turned into a long story - but I wanted to write it down so I wouldn't forget it. We had a wonderful Christmas, I'll post about it soon with some pictures. Goodnight!