Ruth went to her mail box and there was only one letter. She picked it up and looked at it before opening, but then she looked at the envelope again. There was no stamp, no postmark, only her name and address. She read the letter:
† Dear Ruth,
I'm going to be in your neighborhood Saturday afternoon and I'd like to stop by for a visit.
Love Always, Jesus
† Her hands were shaking as she placed the letter on the table. "Why would the Lord want to visit me? I'm nobody special. I don't have anything to offer." With that thought, Ruth remembered her empty kitchen cabinets. Oh my goodness, I really don't have anything to offer. I'll have to run down to the store and buy something for dinner." She reached for her purse and counted out its contents. Five dollars and forty cents. "Well, I can get some bread and cold cuts, at least." She threw on her coat and hurried out the door. A loaf of french bread, a half-pound of sliced turkey, and a carton of milk... leaving Ruth with a grand total of twelve cents to last her until Monday. Nonetheless, she felt good as she headed home, her meager offerings tucked under her arm.
† "Hey lady, can you help us, lady?" Ruth had been so absorbed in her dinner plans, she hadn't even noticed two figures huddled in the alleyway. A man and a woman, both of them dressed in little more than rags.
† "Look lady, I ain't got a job, ya know, and my wife and have been living out here on the street, and, well, now it's getting cold and we're getting kinda hungry and, well, if you could help us, lady, we'd really appreciate it."
† Ruth looked at them both. They were dirty, they smelled bad and, frankly, she was certain that they could get some kind of work if they really wanted to.
† "Sir, I'd like to help you, but I'm a poor woman myself. All I have is a few cold cuts and some bread, and I'm having an important guest for dinner tonight and I was planning on serving that to Him."
† "Yeah, well, okay lady, I understand. Thanks anyway." The man put his arm around the woman's shoulders, turned and headed back into the alley. As she watched them leave, Ruth felt a familiar twinge in her heart.
† "Sir, wait!" The couple stopped and turned as she ran down the alley after them. "Look, why don't you take this food. I'll figure out something else to serve my guest." She handed the man her grocery bag. "Thank you lady. Thank you very much!"
† "Yes, thank you!" It was the man's wife, and Ruth could see now that she was shivering. "You know, I've got another coat at home. Here, why don't you take this one." Ruth unbuttoned her jacket and slipped it over the woman's shoulders. Then smiling, she turned and walked back to the street... without her coat and with nothing to serve her guest. "Thank you lady! Thank you very much!"
† Ruth was chilled by the time she reached her front door, and worried too. The Lord was coming to visit and she didn't have anything to offer Him. She fumbled through her purse for the door key. But as she did, she noticed another envelope in her mailbox. "That's odd. The mailman doesn't usually come twice in one day."
† She took the envelope out of the box and opened it. It read:
† Dear Ruth,
It was so good to see you again. Thank you for the lovely meal.
And thank you, too, for the beautiful coat.
Love Always, Jesus
† The air was still cold, but even without her coat, Ruth no longer noticed.

People come and go out of our lives and it is my belief that God has placed them there for a purpose. I have had many such people come into my life here on the Internet. And because of each of them my life has been enriched and has had many changes take place. While it is not good to keep looking back into ones past that could have heartaches and disappointments in it. I am sure there are some memories that are worth holding onto and as we hear on commercial capture the moments. I am sure that Ruth here in the story didn't become the woman she was overnight. Many years of experiencing life took place first and perhaps living a life of where she too at one time experienced the same needs that these people had. It is so easy to judge a person before finding out the full facts about them like what caused them to be like this. Each one of us has a past that is history and although it is not good to dwell on it we also can't ignore it totally; it is because of our past that we are who and what we are today. Good or bad no matter what it was in our past it helped to mold us into who we are. Same as it did with Ruth. She had two choices she could have made she could have continued on or she could have done what she did. And if you ever stopped to notice the ones that have the least or have been through the most are the ones that give the helping hand to others. And like these people in this story, I too know what it is like not knowing where my next meal was coming from. And to know what it is like to have lost everything totally except for a few items. So the next time that you see someone struggling in life, don't be quick to judge them until you have walked in their shoes and been through the same thing that they have and in the same way.

May God Bless you all.