An immigrant family had broken down on a lonely stretch of highway on a freezing night in Northern California. They had several children, but all looked a mess and the car was a piece of junk. An imam was driving the deserted highway in his 4-wheel drive. He drove fast to make the mountain pass before the snow closed in. Suddenly, his headlights made out the wreck of a car, off the road and the family of Mexicans standing nearby. He swerved, irritated, and continued on into the night.

Not far behind however, was a missionary couple, home on leave. Almost at their destination, they were driving slowly in the old car they had borrowed for the trip. They were tired and short on money. The couple decided they couldn’t really help this time and kept going.

Several hours later, a group of atheist bikers where heading home from the local bar, a little worse for wear. On seeing the broken car, the lead bike pulled over. He found the family huddled in the back of the car; the children were cold but well. The baby however, needed urgent medical care. While a couple of the guys started working on the car, the others loaded their bikes with extra passengers and headed for the nearest hospital where the first biker pledged the full medical bills for the baby. The next morning he checked the rest of the family into a good motel and for the remainder of the week covered all their bills and sent them on their way with a fixed car and a healthy baby! He didn’t accept a cent for all he had done.

The nature of generosity, it seems, hasn’t changed in the couple of thousand years since the first addition of this story was published (in Luke 10:25-37). Let us all aspire to BE generous christians, rather than sit back and admire those who are. I got this post from a friend (Thanks David!) who linked me up to www.livinggenerously.com where they featured this article.