Some days, it is just enough to make it from sun up to sun down. Some days are long and stretch you thin. And then some days are just so full of joy and light that you feel as though you may burst. Both kinds of days are blessings and I am so glad to be learning that...
I had two packages to get into the mail. One has been ready to go for about a week, but I could never quite get it together enough to make it to the post office. Today, I wrangle Cub into some clothes (he is protesting clothing these days), make myself presentable and get all the way to the post office before I realize that I left the packages at home. I sigh and shake my head at the predicament...the waste of gas, and time, and I still have to get these things mailed...
I head back to the van. Strap Cub back into the carseat. It is hot. Across the parking lot, I see a figure coming in my direction, "Hey sister-". Sure he is trying to sell me some bootleg DVD's or body oils or demo's of his latest rap album, I ignore him. It's just too hot. In the driver's seat, I look up just as he gets to my vehicle. He holds up a flyer. I smile politely as I wave and shake my head "No, thank you." (Refusal can be polite. Southern home trainin'). I pull off. But, there was a Cross on that flyer. The struggle lasts about 3 seconds and I turn the van around, pull up beside him and roll my window down. "I saw the cross on the flyer..." I say. He gives me a big smile and tells me why he is standing in this parking lot in 90 degree weather. His life had been going nowhere. He used to be a drug dealer. When he'd gotten out of jail, he'd had no place to go. Somebody saw him on the street one day. A pastor. "I was driving through this neighborhood and saw you standing there. You got any place to go?" the pastor asked. "No." was the reply. "I have a place for you, if you want. Here's my number. You can call me." As night was coming on, the young man tells me, he made the call. And the pastor came immediately. "It is amazing what just a shower, some clean clothes and a shave will do for someone.", the young man tells me. He talks about the ministry, but even more than what he is saying I see an honest and clear person before me...I can see what love does to people. I put money in his plastic bucket. He gives me a flyer. And then I notice a woman asking for this ministry too. She is sweating. I drive back and purchase some bottles of water. "Stay hydrated." I tell them and they were grateful for the water. Cub and I go home.
Last week, a scripture came to mind and impacted me in a really new way. "For the Son of Man came to seek and to save that which was lost." Luke 19:10. Yeshua said that he came to seek and save the lost (The same words are in Matthew 18:11). I have always focused on the "save" part, but never the "seek" part. The pastor who rescued the young man I met was out seeking the lost. The rescued ones were in turn out seeking those who were ready to come in from the cold and those who want to help. And as I looked over the flyer, Luke 19:10 was printed at the bottom. I could have cried.
Love is active. It has no time for judgement or lectures. It is busy going about rescuing and sending people on the way of peace. This makes me so happy. Sometimes, love is what stretches you thin, but oh if it doesn't fill you with the greatest joy too!!! Photo above taken by Mary Chind
