It was on the night of January 1 (New Year’s Day).

A family friend and I had gone to pick up what was left of the grills that a suya seller had been contracted to handle for us. While bringing down the cooler, its cover fell on the ground. Our screams must have attracted her attention to our ordeal because the next thing I heard (in Igbo) was, “Should I get water to wash it for you?”

I turned to look at whom the tiny voice belonged to.

I didn’t see her face clearly, but she looked to be a girl of about eight to 10 years old. And she had a bucket in her hands, meaning that she was still fetching water at that time.

I had already said, “Thank you, don’t worry,” but when her words echoed in my mind, I called her back.

I asked where she lived. It was just to be sure that she lived near enough to know where our house was when I described it to her.

She knew our house. So, I asked her to come and see me the next day.

Remember the story I told about waking up to a voice note from a friend in the U.S., asking me to find eight students (three in secondary school and five in primary school) who needed financial aid for their education?

Well, the little girl turned out to be a perfect candidate for that charity intervention!

I have not stopped thinking about that encounter.

Do you know what it taught me?

Life knows what we need. And making it happen for us is not a problem at all. But then, our disposition is a major determinant of how much of our needs life will fulfil.

There’s a quote that says, “Work on your character and a good life will come to you.”

The most powerful prayer we can ever say is through our character!

I got to an occasion recently, and a young man was greeting me with so much familiarity, but his face was not familiar to me. When I was about to leave the venue, I saw him walking towards me again with the same smile. I concluded that he was coming to tell me one pitiable story before begging for money. So, I pretended to be fiddling with my phone while waiting for him to get closer and talk nonsense.

To my surprise, he said, “Ma, you don’t remember me again. I am the person who followed you home from the gas depot to fix your cylinder valve.”

Oh my God!

The incident he had just described is one I remember clearly, even though it has been a few years.

My gas cylinder was malfunctioning that morning. I got tired of fiddling with it and went to a nearby gas depot. I begged the manager to let one of their boys follow me home to fix it. I offered to pay for their time, but he explained that since I was their customer, transport fare back was enough.

One of them offered to go with me and, within minutes, fixed the problem.

When he was done, I asked him how much I was to pay for his efforts. He laughed and said, “Ma, anything from you is fine.”

I thought of how eagerly he had volunteered to come and fix the problem for me and decided to be generous.

He thanked me profusely and left.

All these memories came flooding back as he stood before me, hesitant to turn around and leave after reminding me who he was.

Eventually, he spoke up, apparently sensing my awkwardness at keeping him standing there.

He told me that he just wanted to thank me again for the “big money” I gave him that day because his younger brother had not been feeling well, and he did not have a kobo on him. So, as soon as I gave him the money, he went to buy his brother’s drugs.

Then, he thanked me again and left.

I just remembered that encounter and said to myself, “God surely has His ways.”

My gas cylinder developed a minor fault, and all that transpired from that one simple incident ended up paying for the drugs of a sick person.

Maybe the lesson here is this: whenever you have an encounter with someone who needs whatever you can give them, don’t hold back. There could be a problem that God is positioning you to solve in their life at such moments.

For example, it’s not every transaction where you are supposed to collect “change.” Maybe, through your gesture of “keep the change,” a child will have fish with dinner, or an exhausted person will have transport fare back home instead of trekking.