Those of you that believe in the goodness of man will love this story. Two weeks ago I left my camera on a bus in Moline, Ill. It all started when Michael and I took a Saturday and flew down in hopes of meeting up with a relative but ended up spending the day at the downtown mall and hanging out. After taking in the sights we tried to catch the bus to take us back to the airport and the driver breezed by us. We ran through the parking lot to catch him. By the time we reached the bus I was fuming. I chewed the driver out by making some reference to some glasses that he probably should have worn and took my seat mumbling something about how glad I was that I didn't live in that crummy town. Anyway, on our way back to the airport via the bus I didn't miss the camera until I went through security. Realizing my situation Michael generously offered to go back to the mall. I thought I had left it outside Younkers Dept. Store when I had sat down waiting for the bus or lost it running after the stupid bus. He never found the camera, missed the bus coming back and had to walk three miles back to the airport in order to make the flight back to the TC. I never thought I would see it again but took a shot in the dark and posted an email to MetroLink in Moline and also the Southgate Mall lost and found in hopes that it would turn up. Last week MetroLink informed me that they had found a camera. Not having any ID in the carry case, I told them that I could identify the camera by ID'ing the pictures. We went back this past Saturday to retrieve the camera. Anyone guess who was driving the bus that took us to the Central Station in downtown Moline to retrieve the camera? You guessed it, the very same guy I had chewed on the week before. When we told him where we needed to go he asked us if we had lost a camera and that he remembered us from the week before. He said one of his customers had found it and turned it in and he had taken it to Central Station.He made no reference to my comments, showed us where to go, and took us right to the door where we got the camera. We then got back on the bus and returned to the airport for the flight back. I learned a valuable lesson in confessing my sins and asking for forgiveness, patience with those around me, the goodness of my fellow man, God's tremendous unending love for me even when I act unchristianlike, and my need to seek a humble and contrite heart. Only then can we see the bigger picture. Btw, the photo I selected for this blog is the one that I identified in order to claim the camera back. It's of Michael standing in front of Whitey's Ice Cream Shop at the Mall in Moline, now one of my favorite cities of all time!
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