Unexpected Help From a Stranger

The young widow had faced many hardships, but when her house burned down, the rural community thought she might be forced to move. She did.

She moved her seven children into the unheated granary on her farm, bundling them up every night against the chill. Even though she had precious little to offer, anytime someone needed some food or a helping hand, she gave.

She hoped to build a home in the spring, but for now, the winter of 1911 was brutal in the granary.

A few weeks before Christmas, the bitter wind blew snowdrifts higher and higher against their shelter. One late afternoon, as blizzard conditions raged outside, there was a knock on the door. Miles from the nearest neighbor, the widow wondered who'd be out in the storm.

She rose to answer the door and quickly led a man inside, offering him some cold stew.

Wide-eyed kids quietly observed the stranger—after he ate, the widow gave the man several wool blankets and told him he could sleep in the barn.

In the morning, the man asked the widow about the wooden planks that were stacked in piles in the barn. She told them they were for the house she hoped to have built. The man asked for the building plans—which the widow handed him. He then asked if he could cut the boards for her. The man stayed for several days—hand sawing each board to the specifications.

The following spring, when the community came to help the widow build the house, every board fit together perfectly.

No one knew who the stranger was that passed through during the snowstorm. But the widow was certainly thankful she answered the door—and perhaps unaware, she'd welcomed an angel.

My great-grandma never forgot that winter or the stranger that helped them.

Remember to welcome strangers, because some who have done this have welcomed angels without knowing it. Hebrews 13:2