The Sweater Thief

"Have you seen my sweater?" was the question I heard Mary Alice ask over and over again today. We had just gotten back from the doctor's office. Mary Alice had a stye in her eye, so we went by Wal Mart to fill her prescription. She looked so cute in her little pink cardigan and her bright pink bow. When we first arrived at the store, we made a detour to the restroom. Mary Alice was hot, so she decided to take off her sweater and carefully laid it on a table in the restroom.

A few minutes later, we were perusing the grocery store when we saw a little girl wearing a sweater that was identical to Mary Alice's. This made me remember that Mary Alice had taken her sweater off in the first place so I asked Mary Alice where it was. She gasped and said, "Oops! I left it in the restroom. We need to go get it!" The girl who was wearing the identical sweater (that did not match the shirt underneath) was about three years old, so the sweater seemed a little baggy on her. I thought perhaps they'd just found the sweater and were on the way to take it to the lost in found.

I went up to the mother of the little girl and asked, "Excuse me? Did you wear that sweater into the store?" The mother got an angry look on her face and said, "Yeah!" I tried to explain that we had just "lost" an identical sweater in the restroom, and that it was strange that we would see the same sweater twice in one day in one store. Mary Alice said, "That girl has on my sweater!" Embarrassed, I said, "No, Mary Alice. This lady says that this sweater belongs to this little girl. It just looks like yours." This lady sure seemed defensive."I don't know where your sweater is! Maybe you should check the restroom!" was the lady's annoyed response. I quickly wheeled away as Mary Alice yelled back at the woman, "My sweater is a 5T!"

We went back to the restrooms, where we were told to check the customer service lost and found. Mary Alice was crying the whole way through the store and saying things like, "I just know that lady took my sweater. She really is lying." Even though, I wasn't so sure myself, I tried to convince Mary Alice that we shouldn't judge this woman and that it was possible that her daughter had a similar sweater. At customer service, we were told that no sweater had been turned in. "Well, Mary Alice," I said, "Somebody probably stole it." Mary Alice was heartbroken. She was sad because her Gran bought her that sweater for her birthday last year. She ranted and raved about how "rude" that woman was and how she was going to go find her and say, "I know you took that sweater!" I told her that she would do no such thing.

As we continued shopping, I looked and looked for the woman, not because I wanted to say anything to her. Honestly, I just wanted her to feel ashamed of herself for stealing a child's sweater. Unbelievable! I wasn't even mad at her, but was only thinking of what a pitiful person she was and what a sad example she was setting for her little girls. We never saw her again.

On the way home, Mary Alice was talking about how angry she was at that woman who was a "stealer and a thief"! Mary Alice also said, "I could kick her in the hiney for doing that!" I told her that we should feel sorry for the woman and should forgive her and that how we forgive others is how God is going to forgive us. Mary Alice said, "I'm going to forgive that lady then." When we got home, she called her Dad and told him about the lady and how she was going to forgive her.

Perhaps the little girl needed a new sweater? Perhaps this woman will sell Mary Alice's sweater on ebay? God provided this wonderful teaching opportunity for me to use with Mary Alice. I don't really struggle with forgiving this sweater stealer, but other things have been hard for me to forgive. It was a good lesson in forgiveness (for us both) to think about.