The fragrance always stays in the hand that gives the rose.
~Hada Bejar

Some years ago, when the General Motors plant closed in our city of 75,000 people, there was a feeling of sadness and doom. Combine that with gas prices that skyrocketed to over $4 a gallon and flooding from the river that went through town, damaging homes and businesses, and we had a recipe for depression.

Our church youth group decided to breathe some life back into our city by doing something nice with no strings attached. So, we went before our congregation and told them of our ideas, and an offering of $1,700 came in for us to use.

One of our ideas was to buy $25 gas cards and bouquets of roses and “randomly” give them out to people all around the city. I put “randomly” in quotes because our group knew it really wasn’t left to chance. Before we distributed them, we all gathered in our youth room to pray that God would lead us to the people He wanted them to go to. After our prayer, about twenty-five teens and youth leaders piled into vehicles and our church van and started driving through the streets to find people who might need some encouragement.

Our high-school students had many great interactions as they gave roses to people working in their yards or out walking on the sidewalks on a beautiful day. And our middle-school students gave out the free gas cards to the customers at a gas station.

One interaction really stood out. Two middle-school boys watched as a young woman in her mid-twenties pulled up to the gas pump. The students were told not to approach anyone until they got out of their cars to pump their gas.

The young woman didn’t get out of her car. Instead, she began looking through her purse, then her glove compartment and then frantically under her seats.

Then she put her hands and head on her steering wheel and began to sob. The thirteen-year-old boys weren’t sure what they should do so they asked one of our youth leaders. He told them to politely knock on the window and offer a free gas card to her, which they did.

Upon hearing the knock, the young lady wiped away her tears, tried to compose herself and then rolled down the window. They said to her, “Here is a free twenty-five-dollar gas card for you, no strings attached. We just want you to know that God loves you.”

The young woman began to cry again. After composing herself a second time, she accepted the gas card and then told them her story.

She was a single mom who had been out of a job for a long time. She was having trouble making ends meet but was optimistic about a job interview that she had that day. In fact, she was on her way to it. Her gas gauge was on empty, but she’d thought she had one last ten-dollar bill in her purse. Then she couldn’t find it.

When it occurred to her that she wasn’t going to be able to get to her job interview (a job she desperately needed to feed her kids), she broke down and began crying out to God.

“God, you know how badly I need this job. I can’t find my last ten-dollar bill, and now I am going to miss my interview. Oh, God, I don’t know what to do. I am so weary and tired, and I just feel like I have lost all hope.”

She looked at the boys and said, “You have no idea what you have done for me. Thank you so much!” They watched tears of joy stream down her face as she began pumping her gas.

The boys went back to the youth leader and told them what had happened, so he gave them four more gas cards and a bouquet of roses to give to the young mom.

She couldn’t believe it when they returned. “You all have done enough for me. I can’t take anything else from you.”

They insisted, and she finally accepted the gifts with new tears streaming down her face.

We have continued the tradition of handing out roses and/or gas cards once or twice a year for the past twelve years now. And every time God leads us to people who desperately need to know that they are loved.

Not only does it make a difference in the lives of those who receive the gifts, but it also makes a difference in the lives of the teens who get to see that God is never random. And they get to take part in something that is bigger than themselves.

— Michael T. Powers —