God Remembers

Years ago I was sitting on a downtown bench after work waiting for a commuter express bus headed towards the interstate.

I was using a new pocketbook with a small handle not large enough to put over my shoulder. I placed the purse beside me so I could read my book. The bus arrived, and I completely forgot about my purse. A few minutes later, I realized it was missing. Panic set in as I looked all around. The purse contained my house and car keys, driver’s license, ATM card, address book with my contact information, a little over $30, and a few other items. My husband was working out of town, and I was home alone. Knowing I was trapped with no way to go back for my purse, I prayed. “Dear Heavenly Father, please put your angels around my pocketbook until I can retrieve it. In Jesus’ name. Amen.”

 “What’s wrong?” one of the female passengers asked. I explained my situation, and she offered to drive me back downtown to look for my purse.

We arrived at the bench, but no purse in sight. We even looked in nearby trash barrels. Now I was going to have to call a locksmith to change all the locks on our house.

The woman brought me to my friend’s who had a spare set of keys to our house, and then to my car after I retrieved my spare set of car keys from our home. Once I returned home again, I found a message on my answering machine from Ernest Jones, a bus driver who said he found my pocketbook on a downtown bench.

Within the hour my friend and I met Ernest at a local ice cream parlor. He returned my purse with everything intact. “Two women boarded the bus at your stop but left the purse on the bench. I started to drive away, but stopped, and retrieved your purse,” he told me.

I expressed my appreciation and gave him a Bible. “There’s a thank you card in there for you to open later,” I told him, not disclosing it contained a $100 check.

The next day I was so grateful, I called the local newspaper to tell them what happened. They interviewed us that very day. The next morning a large photograph of the two of us appeared on the front page above our story: “Bus Driver Takes Honest Route.” We were both interviewed for the local nightly news later that day.

Ernest called me several times to tell me about various gifts he received from strangers after our story was released. Gift certificates for new sneakers, a free weekend at a local beach resort, meals at local restaurants, and more. He told me it wasn’t the first time he found something valuable and returned it, but it was the first time he was rewarded for his honesty. As a teen, he found a pocketbook containing $21,000 from the proceeds of a real estate transaction. He returned it to its rightful owner, but never received a reward.

“God didn’t forget what you did years ago Ernest. You’re just getting rewarded for it now.”

God tells us in Galatians 6:9: “Let us not grow weary in well doing, for in due season we shall reap if we faint not.”