Hunter's Heart

"I'm not going to school," my 6-year-old grandson insisted last Friday. Our daughter Joy was confused because Hunter loves school.

"Hunter, get on the bus."

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I am taking the money I was saving for vacation to God's Warehouse [a local thrift store] and buying clothes and toys for the kids that don't have them."

A tornado had hit a section of their northeast Tennessee county and wiped out a community of houses. Hunter insisted that the children who had been affected couldn't wait another day for clothes while he went to school.

Hunter won. Joy loaded Hunter, his vacation change jar and a 4-year-old friend in the pickup and off they went to God's Warehouse. When Hunter asked the person in charge how much he could buy for the $38 in his jar, they told him he could fill the back of his momma's truck.

Because they knew some of the children whose homes had been destroyed, Joy had gotten a list of clothing sizes needed. She set up baskets on the floor labeled by size, and the boys carefully went through the clothing, selecting two outfits for each child. Toys and other items were added to the piles.

Hunter also tried to buy the eight bags of donations an elderly man was dropping off. "You don't want these clothes, Son, they're for old people," the man said.

"Well, there were old people whose homes were destroyed. Please, can I buy them?" The man apologized to the store clerk and placed the bags in Joy's truck instead.

When the truck was full, Joy and the kids took the donations over to those affected. The devastation hit them hard, and Joy worried about its effect on the boys. But there was satisfaction, too, in delivering the things they had picked out and that Hunter had personally paid for.

I'm proud of my grandson. He's been saving that money for months in anticipation of a trip to the beach this summer. And yet he was willing to give it up for what he saw as a greater need.

Yesterday, I got irritated about a very small kindness someone asked me to do. It cost me almost nothing, but my selfish nature protested. I need God to soften my heart like he has Hunter's to the needs of those around me and to help me put those needs before my wants.

What needs do you see today? Maybe you're called, like Hunter, to help those dealing with the tornado aftermath. Maybe it's someone at church that needs a hand. Maybe it's a family member who simply needs us to listen. Whatever it is, act quickly as Hunter did. Don't delay like I did. Allow God to bless others through you.