Dear friends,
During my message Sunday I shared the following story. But I like it a lot and so I decided to share it again in the email. I hope it inspires you to find ways to continue the work of Jesus where you live!
Julie Pennington Russell tells the following story:
A woman was an associate pastor of a large Presbyterian church in southern California. This woman loved to go to Nordstrom department store in Bel Air during the Christmas season, mostly just to enjoy the ambiance and the live Christmas music on all five floors.
On one of her visits, the minister was on the top floor of the store looking at some of the finest dresses in the world, when the elevator doors opened and out stepped a very disheveled looking woman. Her clothes were dirty and torn, her hair was matted, her stockings were rolled down to her ankles. She just stood there holding a very full and very dirty gym bag in her hand and it was obvious that she probably wasn't going to buy anything—all the dresses were all in the multi thousand-dollar category.
The minister half-expected a security guard to come and show the woman out. But instead of a security guard, a stately saleswoman came over to the woman with the gym bag and asked,
"May I help you, madam?"
The woman said, "Yeah! I wanna buy a dress!"
"Any particular kind of dress?" the saleswoman asked in a very kind and dignified manner.
"A party dress!" the woman answered.
"Well you've come to the right place," said the saleswoman. "Follow me. I think we have some of the finest party dresses in the world."
The saleswoman then spent more than fifteen minutes matching the dresses with the woman's skin color and eye color, trying to help her find just the right match. After selecting three dresses, the saleswoman said, "Shall we go and try them on?" They headed into the dressing room. The minister hurried into the adjoining dressing room and put her ear up to the wall. She had to hear what would happen next.
The woman with the gym bag tried on the dresses with the saleswoman's help. But then, after about ten minutes, the woman said very abruptly, "I've changed my mind. I'm not going to buy a dress today!" The minister in the adjoining cubicle held her breath and heard the saleswoman say, "That's all right." And then, in a gentle voice she said, "But here's my card. Should you come back to Nordstrom, I do hope that you'll ask for me. I would consider it such a privilege to wait on you again."
May your week include surprising opportunities to share God's love!
Blessings,
Pastor Beth
