The recipient of a great gift

Elijah and I were in a far away part of town that we don't visit very often. He said his throat hurt and that he needed a drink. He was almost in tears. I stopped at a store that I thought would have a drinking fountain. We went in and started exploring the store searching for that thing that would quench his thirst. We found the restroom and a man who was stocking shelves asked if he could help. We inquired about a drinking fountain and he led us to the front of the store where we quickly figured that he was not normally employed at this store. The manager told him that there was not a drinking fountain for the public, but that he could go up to the brake room and get a glass of water for Elijah. Instead the man walked over to a drink cooler, took out a bottle of water, walked to the checkout counter and fumbled to find change in his pocket. Looking and listening I assumed that the circumstances of this man were probably not as good as mine. The way he dressed and the way he searched his pockets made me think that he was probably lacking in income. The way he spoke gave me the impression that he either had a physical or mental challenge in his life. Yet this man wanted to give and sacrifice what little he had for me and my child. When he was counting his coins, I came next to him and told him that he did not need to do this for me. The girl at the cash register and the manager were both confused and somewhat threatening to the man. Apparently it is very much against the rules for an employee to purchase anything unless he is taking a break, so this man was also putting his employment on the line. After he purchased the bottle of water he lovingly gave it Elijah and went back to work. I thanked him and then told the cashier that all we did was ask him if there was a drinking fountain in the store. She then smiled and said, "He is nice", but I don't think that she really even knew the man very well. We walked out the door and I began crying. In fact, I couldn't control myself for about 5 minutes. In the car I said a prayer of thanks for such a wonderful act of kindness and sacrifice, and asked for blessings for this man. I couldn't remember such an act being done for me, except perhaps on my mission. I was very touched. I would like to think that I would do the same for someone else, but thus far, I have probably failed. I need to work on being more Christlike.