The side of the Food Bus looked awful! After being caught in the tide waters, almost being swept out to sea, and scrapping against the wooden post, the bus needed to be repainted! Gus decided to take a few days off from selling food and drive into the city and find a body shop that would repaint the bus. Gus counted all the money that he had made from selling food and duct tape, and he thought he had just enough to get the bus repainted in the bright green color and have the flowers repainted too!
As Gus was driving the food bus along the road toward the city, he saw something that he could not believe! There was a man lying on the side of the road! All this man was wearing was a pair of boxer shorts, and it looked like he was either asleep or dead!
Gus was curious, so he stopped the bus to look closer. As Gus got out of the bus, the man by the side of the road groaned and tried to sit up. The man was too weak to sit up, and he fell back onto the ground. His skin was turning bright red with sunburn, he was covered with dirt, and was bleeding in several places! Gus got some water and gave the man a drink.
After a few minutes the man was strong enough to sit up, and Gus helped him to stand and walk to the bus.
The man told Gus what had happened to him. He had been jogging along the edge of the road when suddenly a car stopped, and four men jumped out of the car! The men knocked him down, beat him, took his money, and took his expensive jogging clothes! They even took his jogging shoes and his socks! The men hit him so hard that he was knocked out for a long time!
When the man first woke up; he saw another car stop and he thought that someone was going to help him, but the man in that car just yelled at him and told him that he was a preacher and that the man needed to repent of his sins. After the preacher finished yelling at him, the preacher got back in his car and left! Soon a big Church bus came down the road, they slowed down, but they did not even stop! The Church bus was full of teenagers, a lot of luggage, and sleeping bags. They must have been going to camp. The teenagers yelled at him and made fun of him; they even threw some water balloons at him!
The next thing the man remembered was when Gus came along in the food bus, stopped, and gave him some water.
Gus had compassion for this man and gave him food to eat and some clothes to wear.
The man seemed to be injured badly; some of his ribs might be broken, he had a hurt ankle and some bad cuts needed stitches! Gus put duct tape on the bad cuts to keep them from bleeding too much until they could get to a hospital.
Gus drove as fast as he could and took the man to the nearest hospital! When they got to the hospital, the person at the desk said that the man could not be helped until the emergency room fee was paid! Of course, the man’s money had been stolen, so Gus used some of his own money to pay for the emergency room fee.
The man thanked Gus over and over for his kindness and compassion, then Gus said goodbye and went to look for a body shop that could repaint the food bus.
When Gus stopped to eat some lunch, he thought about everything that had happened that morning. His adventure with the man laying beside the road reminded of one of the parables that Jesus told.
Gus opened his Bible and read what Jesus said in Luke 10:25-37
One day an expert in religious law stood up to test Jesus by asking him this question: “Teacher, what should I do to inherit eternal life?” Jesus replied, “What does the law of Moses say? How do you read it?”
The man answered, “’You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your strength, and all your mind.’ And, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’” “Right!” Jesus told him. “Do this and you will live!” The man wanted to justify his actions, so he asked Jesus, “And who is my neighbor?”
Jesus replied with a story: “A Jewish man was traveling from Jerusalem down to Jericho, and he was attacked by bandits. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him up, and left him half dead beside the road. By chance a priest came along. But when he saw the man lying there, he crossed to the other side of the road and passed him by.
A Temple assistant walked over and looked at him lying there, but he also passed by on the other side.
Then a despised Samaritan came along, and when he saw the man, he felt compassion for him. Going over to him the Samaritan soothed his wounds with olive oil and wine and bandaged them. Then he put the man on his own donkey and took him to an inn, where he took care of him. The next day he handed the innkeeper two silver coins, telling him, ‘Take care of this man. If his bill runs higher than this, I’ll pay you the next time I’m here.’
Now which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who was attacked by bandits?” Jesus asked. The man replied, “The one who showed him mercy.” Then Jesus said, “Yes, now go and do the same
Gus wrote in the Gus-Bus Eternal Journal:
Today I learned about the parable of the Good Samaritan by helping a man who had been beat up and robbed. The most important thing in the world is for me to love God with everything I have in me! The second most important thing is to treat everyone I meet with love, compassion, and understanding! This can be hard to do with some people! God help me to be the kind of person that you want me to be!