One of the things I do as an associate pastor on our church staff is to be available before and after certain services each week. I actually stand around while wearing a badge that says "Pastor Mur."

The badge is, in part, to identify me as one who is trained to minister. Over the years it has opened the door to all sorts of wonderful people and to some who were on their way to becoming wonderful.

One day a polished, haole guy stopped me and pointed to a Filipino girl, about 13. He asked if I knew her. I did not. I am not particularly involved with our children's ministry and there are lots of children. He asked if I could find out her name and that made me ask him why he wanted to know.

"Look at her teeth," he said, then left to attend the service that was about to start.

That bothered me, so I set out to look at her teeth. It wasn't easy — she never opened her mouth. When I finally caught her with her mouth open, I saw why. Her teeth went in and out, to the left and to the right, and up and down.

I learned her name and who her parents were. That took some time.

When I got back to the guy, I asked him what this was all about. He told me that God had told him to fix her teeth and would I help. I said I would, but this was not an easy task. Indeed it required great sensitivity lest someone involved would misunderstand and derail what I was convinced was genuinely and properly intended.

It took a number of months to get this young lady's teeth repaired and aligned, and it cost thousands of dollars. The girl and her parents have no idea of who the benefactor is. No one else at the church knows that this ever happened.

Think about this: God told a man from a different culture and stratum of life to fix the teeth of a young girl whose name he did not know; and he was obedient. He refused to be identified or thanked.

The mother and father were humble and gracious to the extent that was required for them and their daughter to be blessed.

Did you know that correctly receiving a blessing from God requires you to be humble and gracious? Her parents were so special in their reception of my offer on behalf of a total stranger. There is a right way to receive an unexpected, unmerited gift and, more so, a gift from a total stranger.

God, who is a total stranger to some, gave his son to straighten out far more than some errant teeth.

Do you, like the parents in this story, have the grace and humility to accept a gift? If you do, you will be like this young girl who now smiles often, freely and confident. You will have a beauty about you, the beauty called holiness.

H. Murray Hohns of Makiki is an associate pastor at New Hope Christian Fellowship.