I like to shop at a Mexican grocery store in a small town near where I live in Wisconsin. It offers fruits and vegetables that I enjoyed while living in Mexico at various times over the years, and speaking Spanish with the employees is fun and keeps me in practice. Everyone who works there, and almost all shoppers, are from Mexico or of Mexican heritage.
One day as I entered, two tall men went through the door ahead of me. Although Mexican, the men looked out of place, very different from the families usually in the small store, and unlikely there to buy vegetables. With an air of menace, they approached one of the employees who was setting out vegetables, backing him into a corner and standing way too close, looming over him. I did not try to hear what they were saying, but I had a bad feeling, and thoughts of “debt collectors” who prey upon immigrants came to mind.
I realized that God could and would help.
Wanting to help, but knowing I should not interfere, I realized that God could and would help. There was a Spanish/English copy of Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy in my Christian Science branch church’s Reading Room. As soon as I could, I brought the copy to the store, and I was happy to see that the man who seemingly had been threatened was there working. I gave him the book and said in Spanish something like, “This book helps people who are in trouble.” He accepted it with thanks.
The next time I went to the store, this employee was working near the back. When he saw me, his face lit up, and he almost ran toward me. “Señora,” he said, “that book is the best gift I have ever received in all my life!” Not only did he continue to thank me whenever I went to the store, but he must have shared something about Science and Health with the woman who worked in the butcher section, because she wanted a copy and offered to pay “anything it costs.” I brought her one as a gift. She delightedly told me later that her two daughters were reading it too. Since the working hours of that store are 12-hour days, six days a week, the commitment it takes to read anything must be sincere.
“Señora,” he said, “that book is the best gift I have ever received in all my life!”
From then on, I started to bring the woman copies of the Spanish Herald of Christian Science as soon as I finished reading each of my print editions. She told me her daughters also read the magazines and are grateful to receive each issue.
