About an hour ago, I watched a fellow with a disabled tag on his car, call over a young mentally disabled man who was holding up a sign saying he needed help. The guy in the car handed the younger man some money, said a few words, and as the light changed drove away. I didn't see anyone else interact with the young man.
It reminded me of a story in a book my wife is reading. The author retells a story that happened to his wife when she was a child. She and her father were driving down the road during a terrible storm when they saw a man struggling to walk along the side of the road. "We have to help that man, Dad," the young child said. "It is dangerous to pick-up people who are walking along the road." The father continued to drive. The young child burst into tears. The father turned around and drove back and they took the man to his job. Afterwords, the father turned to his daughter and said, "It is important for parents to remember that we, too, can learn from our children. Thank you."
Who are we willing to learn from? Isn't life about learning, and about sharing compassion with others, just as God shares compassion with us?
It reminds me of a story my wife shares of our son. He must have been two or three years old, because our daughters were still of an age where they rode in the stroller. The four of them had walked to the pizza place to eat dinner while I was away at a meeting or something. They had saved me a couple slices of pizza. On the way home, our son spied a man in the grocery store parking-lot. He asked my wife, "Is that man a stray?" We had just adopted a stray cat.
"Maybe," my wife responded.
"We should see if he wants to stay with us."
"That might not be a good idea. He might be traveling some place," my wife said.
"We can at least see if he wants some pizza," our son said.
"That we can do."
Once they had reached the grocery store parking lot, before my wife could say anything, our son had said to the man, "Are you hungry?" slight pause and a slightly bewildered expression on the man's face. "Because if you are, we got too much pizza and you can have these two slices." The "stray"-man thanked our son, smiled at my wife, and gladly accepted the pizza.
In the meantime, we parents learned something about generosity from our son.
Again, who are we willing to learn from? Do we really believe there is abundance in the universe? If so, if God has truly provided more than enough for every-one/thing, how do we act that out?
Good questions for Lent.
Blessed Be,
Joel
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