Eyes open, but not getting through to me…

I read a beautiful story today over lunch.

The story was about a six-year-old boy, who snuck out of his home without telling his mom.  He walked to the nearby park, which was empty except for an elderly woman sitting on a bench.  The woman looked incredibly sad and lost, so the boy sat down and started talking to her, telling her of all the joys that fill a six-year-old’s mind.   As the day went by, the little boy reached into his backpack and pulled out some rootbeer and cookies to share with the old woman.

But, as the evening drew on, the little boy began to miss his mother.  So he stood to leave, and as he looked back at the woman, he noticed her smile.  Her smile was so beautiful, the boy felt compelled to run back and give her a great big hug.  When the boy finally returned home, his mother was frantic and demanded to know where he had been.  The boy replied “I met God in the park.  I never realized She would be so old and quiet, and I never thought Her smile would be so beautiful.”

When the old woman returned home, her son was frantic and demanded to know where she had been.

She replied “I met God in the park.  I never realized He would be so young and talkative, or that He would love rootbeer and cookies.”

There is a common theme that runs through many religions, including Christianity:  We all have a bit of the divine in us.  Call it what you will, but many believe that every time you have ever done something thoughtless for somebody, without even thinking about it, it was the work of this divinity working through you.  You can call it God’s grace, or good karma, or whatever, but something chooses that moment to work through us to deliver a positive message to somebody else.  Some of us who are religious can sometimes easily forget that just as God can use others to communicate with us, He can just as easily use us to communicate to others.

A little over a year ago I was on my way to work.  We had just had a huge snowfall here in the Detroit area, and my little car was having a hard time making it out of the driveway much less down the street.  As I approached the main thoroughfare, freaking out because I was getting down to the wire and was almost destined to be late to work, I saw a man round the corner just a little too fast.  He fishtailed a bit, planting his front tires in a bank of soft plowed snow.  His car was irrevocably stuck, and I could see as I waited to turn left that he was incredibly frustrated and in just as much of a hurry as I was.  Perhaps more.

At this point I pulled my car into the parking lot of the party store, figuring if I was going to be late, I might as well have a good reason.  An idea had formed in my head, see:  The night before, Lina had purchased a bag of hay for the rabbit, and we had neglected to bring it into the house.  So, I popped the trunk and grabbed the bag, dragging it over to the man’s car.  I motioned for him to pull the car forward as far as he could, throwing huge handfuls of bunny hay under all 4 of his tires.  Turned out that this wasn’t quite enough, so we did it again.  Half a bag of hay later, the man finally had enough traction behind his tires that he could get his vehicle out of the rut and get on his way.  He motioned his gratitude, and we went on our separate ways.  I was almost twenty minutes late to work, and my name went down in the attendance guide, but I felt good about what I had done and had no regrets.

God is in the stranger who holds the door open when your arms are laden with books.

God is in the friend who gives you just the right advice at just the right time without realizing it.

God is in the friend who shares something small that brings them joy, when you feel like joy has abandoned you.

God is in the woman who sings a song you’ve known since childhood in a way that makes you finally understand the true meaning of the lyrics.

God is in the little boy who makes you smile when your age and the weight of the world are at their heaviest.

God is in the old woman, whose smile can light up your day.

God is in the man who gives half a bag of pet food to help you out of a snowbank.

These things are never chance.  Sometimes it takes a story like that to remind us just how often God uses us to do good in the world.

Advertisement