The Set-Up Samaritan

Last Monday, the first day of school, I didn't have classes until 1pm and I was planning to arrive to school a little early to get a new one card and Upass (lost it when I was about to start my last term ever...sucks). However, like any first day back I was running late and missed my bus. Fortunately, my youngest brother was late too and was going to drive to school, so of course I was going to car pool.

We were so close to pulling out of our driveway except for the fact that a taxi pulled up in front of our house. I honestly didn't know who would arrive to my place in a taxi. I looked over and this middle age Caucasian taxi driver winds down his window and informs us in his European accent that his passenger, a Chinese descent grandmother whom we saw next to him was lost.

To make it a short story, this senior lady was looking for her daughter's house whom she knew the address of. She hadn't been to her daughter's place in two years and was desperately wanting to go there to see her son who had arrived from overseas.

However

1. The address couldn't be right because she stubbornly persisted that it was in the north end area when the address would've directed the taxi driver to the south end of the city as the driver made known to us

2. Her daughter doesn't know of her arrival because she isn't able to contact them since she doesn't have their number (they didn't give it to her even though she has a cell phone) FYI: we later had enough information to assume that she only is in contact with her daughter whens she chooses to visit her

3. She wasn't sure of where she was and was basing her 'landmark' memory of a gas station to be near this unknown residence.

I thought....
Maybe she wrote down the address wrong.
Maybe her daughter gave her a fake one. 
Maybe her son wasn't even at this house when she arrive despite her once again stubbornness that he would be there for sure.

As my brother was doing his best translating back and forth, I thought to myself how patience and kind this driver was to pull up at Asian-looking faces to get some help. He could've easily dropped off this grandma anywhere, could've easily became frustrated with the lack of directions and communications, but he wasn't. He did joke he didn't mind going in circles as he would have a customer all day (and she was willing to pay him, she was in desperation to find this house), but genuinely, I sensed that he didn't want her to waste the time and money.

I stepped in to help translate, and in the end we compromised that if another few circles of driving didn't spark any recollection of the location of this house, then the driver would bring her back to her senior's home in Chinatown.

As we headed to school, I felt a humbling awe within that we did something good. God had set us up to help this grandma and it made me reflect on how sad it was that she wasn't able to contact her children, how she was lost, how lonely she must be living in a senior's home, the driver's action of pulling up next to us, his calm and sincere attitude, and what divine timing all this was.

I still think of this grandma and wonder if she did find her daughter's house. What if she didn't? I guess some questions are just left unanswered....