Sometimes some interesting stories happen around me that I like passing on in this forum. I am recounting this Easter story to show that for all the complaining about the youth, I think the world will be in good hands when we old farts finally move on.
On Ash Wednesday this year, our Church ran its typical activity day (where the kids come and learn about Lent, Ash Wednesday and Easter), and a few other parishes also participated (my wife helps run these).
One of the activities for the high school kids (who take the day off school) is to go down to one of the Churches in the Ottawa Core, where there is a “lunch club” where folks of modest means (and many homeless people) come to have lunch, and have somewhere to “be.” The teenagers from our churches went to help out at the lunchroom and to get maybe a glimpse of how some people have to live.
A few of the teenagers brought their coats in and hung them up, and unfortunately, one of the coats went missing after lunch. The kids hung up their coats in an “if you need one take one. If you have one, leave one” area of the closet, so a lovely leather coat went missing. The jacket that disappeared was a treasured family keepsake (it had been the young man’s grandfather). There was a lot of rushing around to find the coat, but it was gone.
The kids returned to our Church, and our minister got the whole story, so he took the young man aside to talk to him about the missing coat. When our minister asked the young man if he was upset about the coat going missing, the young man’s only response was, “… at least someone will have a warm coat to wear tonight …”.
My Feelings
This is astounding. A kid who could have whined, complained, blamed, or been upset about the loss viewed the coat for what it most likely had become, a gift to someone who might need something warm to wear.
An astounding young man
Note: I feel I can repeat this story because our minister spoke about it in his sermon.
Great story. Good to hear that some people still have that kind of decency. I don’t know how much that really says about young people as a whole though. I think there are a lot less kids with that mindset these days. I think it would be a completely different scenario outside of the church group environment.
I really hope that isn’t the case, and I will try to keep a positive attitude with the younger folks (but I will not be naive either).