“The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’

I am not a bible scholar so I will admit I had to look up the specific verse for this well-known phrase. By the way it is Matthew 25: 40-45. Most of us have heard these words on Sunday morning when your priest or pastor is giving a sermon on how we should behave better towards our neighbors. We all get that message even if we don’t always live up to the challenge. But I want to turn this message around with a short personal story.

This event happened recently when I attended the SPE Annual Conference in New Orleans. By some accident of fate, I received a Distinguished Member award from the SPE. I don’t think I deserved it but nonetheless the plaque is hanging on the wall of my home office. The quote from the American comedian Groucho Marx comes to mind. He was reported to have said “I don’t want to be part of any organization that would have me as a member.” But that is an aside, my story is about something else.

My hotel was only about two blocks from the Convention Center. I don’t get around all that well anymore so I chose it due to that short walk. However, the rehearsal and the awards dinner was held at a fancy casino about 7-8 blocks away. My stubborn ego told me that was no big challenge so on the day of the rehearsal I got one of those bike-cabs that are easy to find around convention sites to get to the casino and the rehearsal went according to SPE’s plan. There was about 4-5 hours between the rehearsal and the actual awards dinner so I set off walking back to my hotel. But my stubborn ego forgot a few important details.

One detail was my difficulty walking along the sidewalks of downtown New Orleans. The second was that I forgot to eat breakfast that morning and the last key detail was forgetting the brutal humidity that week. I have lived in New Orleans before but somehow my memory skipped the part of the 90% humidity on the potential of dehydration on this old body of mine.

The trek started out fine. There was no problem in directions or fear of getting lost. I took it slow, which is the only way I take things these days and the first 4-5 blocks passed by without incident. I was walking alone and there wasn’t anyone else on the street on my path but then things starting going outside of my plan. You may be able to guess what happens next if you have ever suffered from dehydration yourself. I was within visual contact with my destination but suddenly my legs felt like rubber and I couldn’t stand up on my own. The circumstances were my own damn fault and this old fool had gotten himself in trouble.

But as I started to fall, an unlikely set of guardian angels came to my rescue. As I was falling, a man came up from behind me. I hadn’t noticed him but as fate (the good kind) would have it, the initial angel was an old friend of mine from previous SPE collaborations, Saeed Mubarak from Saudi Aramco. He came to my rescue but because of the differences in our weights he was unable to keep me up but he helped me to fall without injury to the sidewalk. The second set of angels were delivered to my location by a black pickup truck. Two men were driving along the street just as I fell. They stopped and came to where I lay on the ground. The final angel from this story was the young man working in the parking garage next to where I fell.

So, with only my ego bruised, I had four angels to aid in my rescue. There were an unlikely lot with one Arab gentleman, two white cowboys and an African American man surrounding me on the sidewalk. My stubborn ego refused a trip the hospital but soon there was another option. As my hotel was only a little more than a block away, one of my angels walked there and returned with a wheelchair. I was helped into the chain and wheeled into the hotel lobby escaping from the punishing heat and humidity and was offered a bottle of water by the hotel clerk, a fifth angel in the story.

How my friend Saeed just happen to be walking to the convention center at just that moment? How the other angles were prompted to stop and render assistance? I guess only the apostle Matthew can really explain it all. But for that moment I was the one the “least of my brothers” and boy was I grateful. That got me out of a jam (of my own making). Once recovered after a couple of hours and another bottle of water from the hotel and a cab ride to the casino for the awards ceremony, I was able to walk (actually limp with my cane) across the stage to get my award. But it was my angels that deserved the real reward and I trust that Matthew will help them receive it.

When I checked out the hotel to go back to the airport to get back home a day later, I asked the desk clerk to call the hotel manager and I had a message to give her. Of course, when this happens it usually means a serious complaint so the clerks were understandably nervous and tried to address my concerns before having to call the supervisor. But they misunderstood. When the manager finally was called, she looked nervous as well. But when I described the great service, and their part in my guardian angel pack rescue she was quite surprised. That is another part of this story that we rarely say thank you enough.

Well, that is my story. The message from Matthew goes both ways. We like to think of ourselves as good people and we are the ones called on to deliver aid. But once in a while, we are the ones in need. Boy I can tell you just how lucky I was to have my guardian angel pack come to my aid at that moment. Saeed my friend, thank you! Bless all of them and help me to remember this episode so that the next time I won’t look the other way and hope that others will be the guardian angel. It is my turn now.