“Would you like to have this magazine?”

I stared at the Awake magazine twenty inches from my face.

Startled, I replied, “no way!” I kept walking and reflected on the encounter. I thought some other shoppers probably will take offense at these two women walking the store aisles like they do when going door-to-door in our neighborhoods.

Someone later suggested to me that I should complain to the store management. That thought also flitted through my mind as I headed to the grocery section. I decided I really did not want to see a sign on the store window saying: “The distribution of literature is prohibited.” After all, I hand out tracts regularly in stores.
Two minutes later, someone stopped me.

“M’aam, which one of these would be better in potato salad?”

I turned around and looked into the smiling dark face of a man in his early sixties. We discussed the merits of regular dill relish or relish with larger chunks.

As I began to leave, he still had a pickle jar in each hand. I offered “The Passage” tract to him and tucked it under his thumb.

“Thank you!“ He beamed, “I know the Lord!”

“Well, then you can share that with someone else,” I suggested.

“I will,” he promised.

I could not help thinking of the contrast of these two encounters. They were close in time and space but they were worlds apart in delivery.