Coincidence?

Brian & Lyn Rogers
West Bountiful, Utah
11/2010

Friday night I was leaving the Salt Lake City airport when I ran into a co-worker that I do not see very often due to my traveling. Occasionally I have seen Dennis on the train when I have taken it from work, but this evening, as my wife was picking me up I was not taking the train. I invited Dennis to ride with us as far as we were going. It would shave about thirty minutes from his commute. We walked out to where my wife was waiting and we took him to the Woods Cross train station, just a few miles from our residence, where Dennis would catch the next train to his stop.

After saying goodbye, as Lyn and I were leaving the station, an older gentleman, I would say about sixty five to seventy years old, flagged us down. He stated that he had been there only about two minutes and was stranded. He wondered if we were going south, into the city, by any chance. We talked briefly and discovered the fellow actually needed a ride to Saratoga Springs near Lehi, Utah. My wife said she had not plans for the evening, so we invited the fellow to get in the car.

As we were about to get on the freeway, I realized that I would be missing my evening meal so I asked the man if he was hungry and indicated to Lyn to stop at Burger King before we got on the freeway. We introduced ourselves him and he told us his name was simply Jerry and that he hadn’t eaten all day. We purchased our food and began our drive south.

In our chit-chat as we drove, he queried me about my job, to which he had many questions. The ride was pleasant and enjoyable; the conversation wonderful, including discovering Jerry was a member of the church. During the ride, Jerry offered to pay us for the food we purchased and for our trouble in taking him home. I simply asked him to pay it forward. Nearly an hour later, we arrived at his residence in Lehi. He thanked us for our hospitality and got out.

As my wife drove me to our house, we discussed the evening’s peculiarity. We found it odd, if you will, that as I was leaving the airport and purely by happenstance (?), I met Dennis as he was also leaving work. I see Dennis maybe twice a year, if that often. If either of us, Dennis or myself, had left work just ten seconds differently, we would not have met and I would not have offered him a ride and hence, my wife and I would not have been at the train station where a fellow was stranded, in the dark, in the cold, and hungry.

 As we were leaving Jerry’s house, a scripture came to my wife’s mind, which she shared with me:

 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?  Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

Coincidence? I think not.