The night I met the Addams Family

As a Christian Scientist, I've learned to "behold the perfect man," to really try to see people spiritually. But I never expected to have to do it so dramatically as when I met Morticia and her husband (along with the family) one night while I was driving home. I saw their vehicle alongside the road and foolishly thought I should stop. I say foolishly because everyone knows it's a bad idea to stop on a dark road to help perfect strangers.

Well at first they seemed to be quite imperfect strangers. It was actually creepy. But then I thought about the Good Samaritan and how he stopped for the man who had been hurt and abandoned alongside the road. Maybe the Samaritan thought that man was creepy too. It might have been scary not knowing if the robbers were still around, hoping to get more loot. But he didn't hesitate to help. So I mentally shrugged and trusted God.

It turned out that they didn't actually need my help since Lurch is so strong and able to do repairs. But they were charmed that I stopped, and even more interested when I mentioned prayer. We ended up having a nice chat about prayer, and they even showed me their knife collection (at which time I really prayed because I recalled their penchant for throwing knives at people fastened to walls, trees, etc. I did not want to be one of them.)

When the car was finally repaired, we parted friends, and they told me that I was the first strange person they'd ever met who hadn't wanted anything from them and hadn't been shocked or rude. I thanked them for saying that and then, when I got to the car wondered just what they meant by "strange"--strange as in stranger or strange as in . . . hmmm. They couldn't possibly have meant that.

Still, I learned that even people who seem . . .er . . . strange . . are still ideas of God with their own special slant on existence, and that it would be foolish to just "pass them by."