A couple nights a week, we can expect a visit from our friend Martin, a homeless man who regularly stops by the house and asks for something to eat. Since we moved to La Paz, I’m further away from those with less and I’m honored to serve Martin a hot plate of food when he visits. Usually he prefers the fried chicken from across the street though.
So tonight, the doorbell rang at its usual time and I went to the door. As we’ve been pinching pennies ourselves these days, I had to explain, “I’m sorry, I don’t have money to buy chicken tonight, but I do have some food if you’d like.” Martin agreed and I went to prepare him a plate.
Martin has on occasion been a little agressive at times, so this evening as Andy was not home, I knew I needed to be careful. I handed him some dinner and carefully started to close the door. But Martin pushed and said, “I have bread.” I kindly explained that we didn’t need any bread and started to close the door again. But Martin insisted, “Pero tengo demas!” “But I have extra!”
So I paused and then graciously received his gift.
I came in the house a bit teary-eyed and told the boys what happened. “That’s cool,” one said, “Martin blessed us.” My 5-year old said, “Martin learned to be helpful!”
I smiled. Actually, Martin taught us a lesson: when you have extra, you share.