Caring

by Joey Davis

While we were in Florida, we had several great experiences. The most outstanding one happened to my daughter, Olivia. While in Disney World, Olivia bought an autograph book. Her plan was to get every Disney character possible to sign her book so that she could bring it back to school d show her friends. All day while we were in the "Magic Kingdom," Olivia sought out the various Disney characters d waited in long lines in order to get their autographs.

At about 5 p.m., while eating ice cream, Olivia took out her book to look over the autographs already secured. hen we finished our snack, Olivia found out that Ariel, The Little Mermaid, was just next door signing autographs, so we headed over there to stand in line and get her to sign the book.

We waited in line for almost a half hour. When we got the front of the line, we started hunting for Olivia's book and pen. About this time, with Olivia in tears, we realized it was left back at the ice cream shop. I hurried back to see if I could find it but could not.

When I got back to the Ariel display, I told Melissa and Olivia that the book was gone. About this time, one of Ariel's escorts (every character has an out of costume escort) asked why Olivia was crying. We told him the story about the book and he said, "I'll take care of it."

He went to one of his employees and told him to bring us a free autograph book. Then he asked us our room number of the hotel where we were staying and said that he would get every character at Disney World to sign the book and would have it sent to our room the next night.

I must admit being skeptical. Who would bother helping some little unknown girl with her autographs? I was certain that this would be the last we heard of him.

Boy, was I wrong! The next night when we arrived at the hotel, laying on our bed was a care package from Ariel's escort. Inside was an Ariel music box, and porcelain Ariel figurine, and Ariel nanopet, and an autograph book that had every page filled with character autographs. Along with this was a nice note from Mr. Hebert, the escort.

Why am I telling you this? Well, Mr. Hebert didn't have to help us. Yet because he went beyond anyone's expectations, he earned our respect and admiration. Was he a Christian? I don't know. But if he wanted to tell me the story of Jesus, I would have listened as long as he talked. Why? Because I first saw Jesus in his life by the way he cared about four strangers. People don't care how much you know, until they know how much you care.