A mom leaves the register to run to the cold drinks section and get an Arizona tea. The baby girl in the shopping cart (they call 'em "buggies" down here - shopping carts, not babies) starts crying. Her crying is a sort of tear filled series of alternating screams and gasps for air.
This girl was terrified. Her Source of security, comfort, sustainance, her Everything, Mom, had disappeared. Where did She go? When will She come back? Will She ever come back? How long will I be alone surrounded by all these strange people? How will I eat? Where will I sleep? Will my diaper ever be changed again?
As I studied grief in some of my counseling classes, I had this idea that maybe babies, children, and adults all mourn the same things, though not the same things. A child cries when he loses a toy. An adult cries when he loses a job. Equally tragic from different perspectives.
What about grief from the Divine perspective? Why did Jesus weep?
The next day. A pedestrian reaches on top of an SUV that is backing out of a parking space and grabs a cup of coffee. He reaches in through the window and hands it to the driver. The SUV drives away and the man walks into the store.
I see acts of kindness, rudeness and neglect every day. What leads us to choose one over the other?
On another day the man might have walked on by pretending that he didn't even see the cup on the roof. Or on anoter day he might have found someone and pointed out the driver's dumb mistake.
Hang up the phone, be patient, open your eyes. No man is an island.
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