Line upon Line

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“Did you water the garden?” my husband asked on a recent Saturday afternoon.

“No,” I replied, surprised at the question. I had been busy all morning with inside chores.

Brad was clearly puzzled. “Well, someone watered the whole garden and weeded and even brought in a couple of zucchinis and set them on the counter.”

My husband normally did his summer gardening in the early hours of the day while it was cool, but he’d been away from home all morning helping out friends. He had dreaded working outside that afternoon in the scorching temperatures, but now it seemed he wouldn’t have to. The look on his face was priceless as the truth sunk in that someone had anonymously performed a huge act of service for him. Confusion and disbelief gave way to relief and gratitude.

After texting a few people he suspected might have helped, he discovered it was our youngest daughter, Kate. She had learned that her dad would be gone that morning, so she rose early, taking time away from her husband on a Saturday, drove twenty minutes to our home, and spent several hours watering, weeding, and harvesting Brad’s large garden.

The unexpected service Kate rendered reminded me of a phrase I had just read in the New International Version of the New Testament. The apostle Paul endured a harrowing fourteen-day storm at sea while traveling as a prisoner to Rome. Eventually his ship crashed near an island, and the NIV states, “The islanders showed us unusual kindness. They built a fire and welcomed us all because it was raining and cold…” (Acts 28:2 NIV, emphasis added) It was no small thing to take care of 276 miserable men, many of them prisoners.

I was struck by the phrase “unusual kindness.” A few synonyms for “unusual” are uncommon, surprising, out of the ordinary, exceptional, remarkable, and significant. It is inspiring to read stories of people who have served in this way–it motivates me to be more aware of people who are in need of Christlike service. Here is a small collection of stories wherein someone showed unusual kindness:

The kindness of landlords

My mother Janice recorded the following story in her personal history:

“My husband Doug was in the military when we married… We lived just a short block from the ocean and were enjoying a magical first year of marriage, when we decided to try canning some apricot jam in our tiny two room apartment. Doug had had experience making apricot jam with his Mom and said he would take over the task.

He labored all day long in our tiny kitchen and then called me in to proudly display twelve quarts of jam. I was more than impressed. He reached out to pick up one of the quart bottles (which were unfortunately sitting on a drop-leaf table) and all twelve quarts fell to the floor in a terrible crash, spraying apricot jam all over our kitchen–up to three feet high. It was a dreadful mess!

Doug landed on his backside on the broken glass and then got up to sit on a chair, while yelling to me to not [come near] since I was six months pregnant. We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry, when I suddenly noticed a considerable pool of blood accumulating under Doug’s chair. He asked me to grab a towel that he could stuff into his pants, and we got in the car and headed for Ft. Ord Hospital, leaving a horrible mess in our kitchen.

At the hospital, they sewed up a very long cut on Doug’s backside and told me to stay awake all night to be sure he didn’t turn over on it. How we dreaded dealing with the disaster in our apartment. But when we opened the door, we were greeted by an unbelievable surprise–the kitchen was clean, stem to stern, not a trace of the disarray that had been there a couple of hours before. No glass, no blood, no apricot jam. We had no idea who had cleaned it, but gratefully went to bed for the night.

The apartment we lived in was in the backyard of the owners, a young couple who lived in a big house. They knocked on our door in the morning to see if we were all right because they had heard a scream the night before and then saw us leave quickly, so they checked the apartment, saw the hideous mess and the blood and had cleaned up everything before we returned from the hospital.”

It must have taken hours to clean up twelve quarts of sticky apricot jam, blood, and broken glass. Talk about unusual kindness.

The kindness of a Relief Society president

A friend gave me permission to share her experience. (Her name has been changed.)

Kira suffers from anxiety–though she tries to hide it–and one Sunday morning it hit her like a rogue wave. She could hardly bear to go to church and pretend everything was okay, but her children were participating in the Primary program and it was her week to teach Relief Society. All during Sacrament meeting tears streamed down Kira’s face–she couldn’t stop them. She forced herself to stay in the chapel until her two children said their parts for the program, then escaped to the restroom where she sobbed and prayed and tried to avoid a full-blown panic attack.

As the meeting ended, she found her Relief Society president, Wendy, to tell her she could not possibly teach the lesson in her current state of mind. Wendy took one look at Kira’s swollen eyes, wrapped her in a tight hug, and told her not to worry about the lesson. She said, “Some of my daughters struggle with anxiety and I know what it looks like. You go home and rest and don’t give the lesson another thought.”

Of course, this meant that Wendy had to find another teacher in the next five minutes or teach the lesson herself, but first she made certain that Kira was taken care of. The next day Wendy stopped by Kira’s home to check on her. She showed unusual kindness during a frightening, embarrassing situation.

The kindness of a teenager

Here’s another story from my mother’s personal history:

“In December of 1983 I learned that my cousin’s son was going to marry the daughter of Senator Orrin G. Hatch. His wife Elaine was here in Utah for the wedding and was trying to arrange a family bridal shower. I volunteered to hold the event in our Provo home.

The day before the shower I became very ill, very quickly, and my fever was so high I became disoriented and couldn’t even sit up at all. My 17-year-old son, John, did something I will never forget: He took the recipes I had chosen for the event, asked me to sign a blank check for him, cancelled his plans to go to the high school football game, and spent seven hours cleaning the house, shopping for ingredients, and making three pans of the complicated dessert which he had never made before–several layers of crust, chocolate pudding, vanilla pudding, whipped cream, cream cheese, etc. It turned out perfectly.

The day of the bridal shower I felt a bit better, but John stayed around all day to help every way he could including cleaning up afterward. I loved him for his thoughtfulness.”

The kindness of a teacher

My daughter Rebecca is an elementary school teacher. She once shared the following experience, which touched me deeply. (The name of her student has been changed.)

“Lucas was a difficult student, really low academically and emotionally. He was also quite needy, and it was obvious that he was hungry for love. His dad let me know at the beginning of the year that mom was out of the picture.

I worked hard with Lucas because he needed a lot of intervention, and when I met his dad at parent teacher conferences, I could see that his dad was struggling too, but trying hard.

A month later Lucas told me and another teacher that his dad was in prison, again, and Lucas was being taken care of by a family friend. I made sure to be especially attentive to him after that.

His birthday was coming up, and often kids remind their teachers about it for a whole month ahead of time, but Lucas hadn’t said anything. It was a few days before and I asked if he was excited about turning seven. He looked at me in confusion and said, “It’s almost my birthday?”

My heart utterly broke, knowing that the people who should be celebrating with him and making him feel special weren’t there. After the students left school for the day, I raided all of my prizes to put a gift together for him.

Another teacher did the same and we left them in his cubby for him to discover. When Lucas saw the anonymous gifts, he was ecstatic and the whole class was excited to watch him open the presents.

It was a tradition in our class for parents to provide a treat for classmates on their child’s birthday. Since I knew Lucas would feel bad if he didn’t have something to share, I made sure to have treats waiting for him in the classroom that day and told him that they were from a friend.

He talked about that experience the rest of the time he was in my class. I just hope he knows how many people love him.”

The kindness of a grandfather

Years ago, I attended the funeral of Dave, a delightful older gentleman from my neighborhood. One of his granddaughters spoke, describing the great kindness of her grandpa who shared a home with her family. On winter mornings before Kyleigh left for high school, her grandpa went out in the cold, shoveled a path through the snow to her car when necessary, warmed up the car, and scraped snow and ice off the windows.

When I mentioned to Dave’s daughter how touched I was that he would do that for his granddaughter–for years–his daughter Tracy informed me that the tradition began when her father was first married and performed the same service for his wife. Later, he did it for his two daughters, then for his grandchildren. What a legacy of unusual and ongoing kindness he left for his family.

The kindness of friends

I have been the recipient of unusual kindness on many occasions. Here is one example which occurred years ago:

By all outward appearances, it was a typical Relief Society Presidency meeting. We began with a prayer, spoke about our upcoming activity, discussed the needs of individual sisters, and confirmed which teachers would be covering which topics during the next month. But inwardly, I was barely holding it together.

For several days I had been dealing with a personal heartache that nearly overwhelmed me. As our presidency meeting progressed, I avoided direct eye contact with the other sisters so they wouldn’t see the tears I was trying to suppress. I could barely focus on the conversation, counting the minutes till I could escape to my home and cry in private.

A closing prayer was offered, and in the brief moment between the “amen” and everyone standing up to leave, a quiet voice asked, “Lynne, are you okay?” I came so closing to faking it–to pretending that I was merely tired. But all three sisters were focused on me, concern in their eyes, and the dam burst.

I’m certain they all had places they needed to be, but these dear women sat with me as if they had all day to listen as I spilled my sorrow. Though I didn’t give them every detail of my situation, I knew that what I did disclose was safe with my friends. They listened without judgment, without giving advice. What sweet relief it was to share my burden and to experience the comfort of knowing that I was not alone. Many years have passed since that morning, and I doubt that Denise, Christine, and Vickie even recall this experience, but I will never forget. Their unusual kindness meant everything to me that day.

The unusual kindness of Jesus Christ

Our greatest example of unusual kindness is Jesus Christ, whose entire ministry focused on other people. The story of the woman taken in adultery is particularly poignant to me. This woman, dragged by her accusers before the Savior, must have been both mortified and terrified. She was publicly humiliated for her sin, and there was every reason to fear she would be stoned to death.

Yet, the unusual kindness of Jesus led Him to stoop down, “…and with His finger [He] wrote on the ground, as though He heard them not.” (John 8:6) This simple act confounded the accusers, mercifully drawing attention away from the poor woman. The Savior’s directive, “…He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her,” dispersed the crowd, allowing Jesus to share a brief but life-changing conversation with the woman. The kindness He showed her was both uncommon and significant.

Who is in need of your kindness today?