Who was this stranger at my door? Should i let him in.
The Stranger at the door
Julie and I were sitting in the living room and we heard the doorbell ring. I got up and peeked out the window and saw a man standing there with something in his hand. It looked like a pie or cake pan. He was a stranger. I was curious and so I opened the door. Maybe it was one of our neighbors? There stood a man with a ball cap on. I hadn’t seen him before.
He said “Good afternoon, ma’am. I wonder if you would be interested in buying this chocolate cake. I have cancer. I am trying to raise money for the chemo treatments. I have the next one next Monday.”
Now this was a strange occurrence. We have people coming by all the time selling stuff. But a cake? I asked who had made the cake. He said his wife had made it. I asked him where he lived and he said he lived on a street back toward the center of town. The cake was a round cake of one layer, covered with chocolate chips which were melting from the heat of the warm cake.
I was become more curious. I asked him to more questions. Don’t you have insurance? He said he did, but his deductible was all used up. This was getting more interesting. He stood there with the cake in his hand, while I mulled things over in my mind. Was he telling the truth? I asked him how much the cake was and he said it was $10. That’s not bad, I thought. Maybe he needs the money. I saw his car parked near our driveway, and it looked like a nice car, a big old car, maybe a 1990 model. I don’t know cars.
So I told him to wait and I would get my money. I shut the door and went back to get my wallet. On the way to the door, I thought about writing his name down. I took up my pad and pencil and went to the door. I told him to come in. He did come in and I shut the door, and I asked him his name and started writing his name down.
Meanwhile he saw Julie in her recliner and went over to meet her and shake her hand. Julie asked him questions about his cancer. He told her it was colon cancer and he had already had 2 chemo treatments and was beginning to loose his hair and he took off his cap and showed her how his hair was thinning. They talked for a few minutes, she seemed very friendly, and then I gave him the $10 and bid him goodbye.
But then when he got to the door, I said, “You know, before you go, I want to pray for you, for God to heal this cancer.”
He smiled and said he would like that. I prayed for him. I asked God to take away the cancer and heal him so he would be free from cancer and he would be a well man. I prayed that when the doctors would take more tests and x-rays they would be amazed and say, “It’s a miracle. We don’t see any cancer there.” He was so happy and when he went out the door, he said he would come back to tell us when he got the good news.
But the end of this story is not over. Later Julie and I sat at the table eating chicken gumbo soup and we talked about the chocolate cake and the man.
Julie said, “We need to pray.”
I thought she was going to pray for him again.I bowed my head and then she said, “Lord, please don’t let the chocolate cake make us sick. Lord protect us if we eat it.”
I was thinking the same thing. Should we eat the cake? We don’t even know this man. Or his wife. What if he was a murderer and wanted to poison us? Did he pick out our house on purpose? Should we eat the cake? Or was he an angel in disguise?
After I finished my soup I cut a slice of the cake. It looked very delicious. I put the piece on a plate and took a bite. It WAS good. I asked Julie if she wanted a bite. She told me to take another bite and she waited. She said if I didn’t get sick, she would take a bite!
Finally, Julie took a bite and she liked the cake. So we both ate a piece of chocolate cake that night. Next day we had eaten the whole cake. We didn’t get sick or die.
I am trying to track down the stranger with the cake. He said he lived on Peach St. He told me his name. So far I can’t find him. I looked in the phone book and Googled his name. It says in Hebrews 13:2, “Don't forget to show hospitality to believers you don't know. By doing this some believers have shown hospitality to angels without being aware of it.”
Your faith led you to take the high road. Though I am kind and generous by nature, I would have turned a stranger away from my door. And, I never would have taken a chance on eating a cake that had nearly melted from the heat.
I also think you are one of those angels in disguise. Wishing you many more blessings in the upcoming New Year!
We Will Stone Him is a raw, unfiltered trauma memoir about surviving childhood abuse, emotional manipulation, and the lifelong wounds that follow. This true story marks the beginning of the Rising From The Ashes Trilogy, John Gambacorta and his survi
She never felt safe at home as a young girl, and didn't understand why when she finally escaped she wasn't safe in the big wide world either ...effectively jumping out of the frying pan into the fire!
