Generosity

This is an old story of the type that never gets old. Even now as I am polishing up the draft for posting, I get tears in my eyes. The Observer is an old softy!

On March 27th, Bri Kneisley was driving with her boyfriend and her son on highway 71. They were at a stop light when their car was struck by an out of control SUV. Her son, 12, was killed in the crash. Basically, the SUV landed on the boy. Ms. Kneisley and her boyfriend were both injured, Kneisley with a head injury that left her in the hospital in critical condition for several days and has left her in need of continuing treatment. Her car, of course, was totaled.

We are not here to talk about the louse of a driver of the SUV, who was driving on a revoked license and had many moving violations, including driving while intoxicated, and was likely intoxicated again at this accident. After his day in court, he'll have some time to think on things in jail.

Ms. Kneisley teaches at Van Horn High School in Independence. As such, she is not made of money. While it may have been a far thing from her mind, eventually her car would need to be replaced. She also needed help with funds for funeral expenses. Enter Mr. Tommy Fagan. Mr. Fagan had a 2002 Honda Accord he had planned to sell. He changed his mind, and decided to give the car, which had over 100,000 miles on it, but was still in very good shape to Ms. Kneisley. His mechanic, an old elementary school pal, Bill Pearce, got wind of Mr. Fagan's plan and decided to help. He basically did a total make over on the car, putting it in excellent condition. Parts and material all donated by area businesses. Then other classmates of the two men got wind of things, and put together a cash donation of over $600 for Ms. Kneisley. The car was presented to Ms. Kneisley May 4th. Here is the television news report.

We see a lot of bad things in the world, and a lot of evil. It's incredible sometimes what bad people can do. It can make you cynical and snarky. I completely love this story. No, I don't like what happened to this lady's son, who by all accounts was a fine 12 year old boy, and I don't like the POS driver who caused the accident, and the court system that seems to have treaded way too lightly in his case. I like how the community responded, however. It's not just generous, but it looks forward, it gives hope. It says, "We know you hurt. We can't bring your son back. But we can take care of some of these needs you have, make things easier for you as you recover physically and spiritually."

This is the grace of God working in and through us, and while it sometimes seems as if grace is in short supply these days, you get something like this and you are reminded that God is indeed, still in the business of dispensing grace to humanity.

Christians: We could use more of this. Take notes.