I truly believe God puts people on our path. I also believe if we aren’t completely wrapped up in our own nonsense, we notice. This happens to me often. It might happen more often but since I’m human, sometimes I am wrapped up in my “stuff” and I fail to see an opportunity to witness or encourage. Today I was shopping and I noticed a little lady having trouble getting a gallon of chocolate milk down. She was on a little scooter. I asked if she needed some help and about that time she got it down. She said “I’ve got it, but I think that’s about my weight limit”.
Amen, Sister. I hear you. I read so much more into that statement than a heavy jug of chocolate milk.
“I’ve got it, Lord… But that’s just about my weight limit. It’s heavy. I can’t carry anything heavier, can you send some help.”
I’ve been there. It’s a street I often travel down. Heavy, hard to carry… Life.
And then she laughed. She had beautiful white hair, bright blue eyes, and a countenance that I deemed joyful, but a little sad. She wheeled on over and began to chat. She told me she just had surgery. She said she still had quite a bit of pain, then she started to share her other difficulties. I had a lot of shopping left to do but I know from experience when God puts someone in my path that my agenda needs to take a backseat. We continued to chat and she had really been through a rough season. And then she said it, “And in the middle of all that my husband died”. It’s the phrase I am familiar with and sometimes my Heavenly Father leads me to mention that I have walked that treacherous road as well. But today, as I tried to be completely Holy Spirit led, I just listened and encouraged and her countenance seemed to brighten up and I wished her well. She just wanted to talk about it. She just needed to talk about it. And the strangest thing is that not five minutes before that I ran into someone who I really hardly ever see and it was someone who spoke the most genuine, funny, heartfelt thing to me when I hadn’t been a widow but just a few hours. And she and I talked about something completely different and I didn’t even think about it until later. It’s just a reminder to pay it forward. Stop being so wrapped up in our own problems that we don’t see the widow, the poor, the heartbroken, the sick, the single mom. The little lady today probably blessed my heart way more than I blessed hers. But I am so grateful that my heart is willing and can hear His direction even in a crowded grocery store. My heart aches for the times I missed it, the times God had to send someone else to minister, to listen, to chat, to encourage. He certainly does not need me. I am certainly not His only choice. But I never want to be too busy to be His hands, His feet, to shine His light.
I loved that she was buying chocolate milk. There was just something about her and that big jug of chocolate milk that makes me smile. I pray she continues to enjoy life’s simple pleasures. I’ve never been so glad to have been out of coconut milk…
PRAYER:
Dear Heavenly Father,
Thank you for all the people and things that make life joyful and full. Thank you for letting us bear one another’s burdens in big and even the smallest of ways. Thank you for divine appointments and holy conversations. Thank you for being in our midst even when we begrudgingly go to the grocery store. What a beautiful blessing that you never leave us nor forsake us. Help us speak kind words with patience to others. Give us eyes to see, to really see the needs of others.
In Jesus Name,
Amen
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