Bottle of faith

1. The red fuel gauge flashed like a panicked eye in the pitch-black night. The motorbike was sluggish and gasping for air on the endless road. The anxiety in my chest spread, cold as the night dew. The streets were indifferent, people hurried past, no one bothered to look back.

Suddenly, a gentle voice rang out:

- What's wrong with your car? - That question was like a warm ray of sunshine dispelling the cold fog.
- My car ran out of gas halfway. I don't know how far to walk to find a gas station? - My voice was lost, mixed with helplessness.

- I have a bottle of mineral water in the trunk. Let me see if there is a gas station up ahead and buy some for you. - The stranger smiled, that smile was like a flower blooming in the dark night.

He sped ahead, and after a few minutes, he came back, handed me the gas bottle, and helped me fill it up. The moment the car started, I felt like I was freed from the tiring night of walking and pushing my bike. I thanked the stranger, then watched the car disappear under the moonlight, filled with gratitude.

Life is always full of small miracles hidden in the most ordinary rhythms. Kindness does not need to be a great act. A little sharing, a little caring, is enough to light up the faith in people's hearts.

2. Since then, I have always kept a plastic bottle in my car trunk. Perhaps, it is a "memory" of the times when the gas gauge was "red-eyed", a "legacy" from the story that a university teacher once told us: One rainy night, he took a strange girl who missed her bus home. There were only a mother and her daughter at home, the old mother prayed to God and Buddha, and when she saw her daughter coming home, she cried tears of joy. And a few months later, he was also helped by another stranger in a similar situation.

Bottle of faith - Photo 1.

Keep an empty bottle in your car trunk. It will become a "miracle", containing kindness of sharing, of faith when encountering someone suddenly running out of gas in the middle of the road - PHOTO: NVCC

Life is a cycle of cause and effect, what you sow is what you reap. Kindness does not necessarily have to be reciprocated by the recipient, but can be another "angel" who appears when we need it most. Or, it may not be for us, but for our loved ones.

I have always believed that everything in life has a destiny and a mission. The invisible hand of life is "testing" people's hearts, then "rewarding" or "punishing" depending on how we behave.

3. One afternoon in April, on the road from the foot of Vinh Tuy bridge down to Ecopark, I met a woman walking her motorbike. Her figure was unsteady and tired, like a lost bird. I stopped my motorbike, asked her questions, and then sped off to buy gas. But when I turned back, the woman had disappeared. I don’t know which side street she turned into, or maybe she doubted the kindness of a stranger like me, thinking it was just a casual greeting… A moment of disappointment passed by.

I tried to speed up, going around some nearby side roads, hoping to see a figure pushing a bike but I didn't see one. Returning to the main road to go home, I saw two young people whose bikes had also run out of gas, one pushing the other on the side of the road.

They were two freshmen from a college, from Yen Bai , who spent the weekend experiencing Bat Trang. When I gave them a small bottle of gasoline and told them about the story of "helping someone who failed to help" recently, they were both surprised for a moment, then thanked me profusely.

- You fill up the gas, let me get the bottle back, and leave it in the trunk, for someone in case they need it… - I smiled.

That's interesting, life always cleverly arranges everything. When you have a good heart, truly open to life, life also smiles back with tolerance.

4. In the trunk of your car, among the spare raincoats and miscellaneous items, don’t forget to put an empty plastic bottle. It’s small, doesn’t take up much space, but its presence has a great meaning: it contains the belief that the warmth of human love is always present, hidden in the hustle and bustle of life with its competition for gain and loss. Even though that kindness and those encounters are only for a few fleeting moments…

Bottle of faith - Photo 2.