A Humble Guy Shines for Christ

“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise, making the most of the opportunity.”  Ephesians 5:15-16

Ruth Bell Graham, in her book “Legacy of a Pack Rat,” tells a story about a professor and a man who shined his boots: 

    Alexander Grigolia had immigrated to America from Soviet Georgia, learned English, earned three doctoral degrees, and became a successful professor at the University of Pennsylvania. But despite his freedom and achievements, he had a misery in his heart that he couldn’t dislodge.

    One day while getting a shoeshine he noticed that the bootblack went about his work with a sense of joy, scrubbing and buffing and smiling and talking. Finally Dr. Grigolia could stand it no longer. He said in his funny-sounding accent, “What always you so happy?” 

    Looking up, the bootblack paused and replied, “Jesus. He loves me. He died so God could forgive my badness. He makes me happy.” 

    The professor snapped his newspaper back in front of his face, and the bootblack went back to work.

    But Dr. Grigolia never escaped those words, and they brought him eventually to the Savior. He later became a professor of anthropology at Wheaton College, and taught, among others, a young student named Billy Graham.