when a friend called on the spur of the moment last week and asked me to come over for coffee and pick out some pecans she’d had cracked. My first response was a “Martha” response - so much on the ‘to-do’ list made me initially say no, thanks. As we talked for a few more minutes, I realized the housework could wait and I jumped in the truck leaving the mess behind. I hadn’t realized how much I needed time for just visiting. I came home refreshed - what a gift she had given me. And I don’t mean just the large bag of pecans she sent home either.
Wednesday of this week I taught a yeast bread class. The participant asked if I could be flexible on the starting time as he might have to go in to work early that morning. I struggled with whether to risk late morning energy level but finally decided to go for it. After the participant arrived (yes, he was detained) and we started talking I realized how much I would have missed if I had said no.
Both of these people enriched my life so much. Both in different ways, but I’d hate to think of how dull my time would have been if I’d said no, thanks to either of these adventures.
The story of Mary and Martha has always aggravated me. Preachers always make Mary into such a goody-two-shoes but I notice they sure like to eat when dinner time comes around. Who would have fixed the meal except for Martha???
This past Friday at Kindergarten class two of the little girls wanted to sit beside me while watching the recess time video (too cold to go outside that morning.) I seldom actually sit during that time or if I do, I read. Yet I resisted the urge to disrupt the little girls to go find my book. Instead, I just sat with them. I was there when they’d look up at me at a funny part of the video. We didn’t have any deep discussions and they weren’t there for disciplinary reasons. They just wanted to be close.
A little boy in that class came to me at the end of the day with the sad declaration of, “I don’t want to go home.” His mom and dad were recently divorced and his dad had remarried. He lived with his ‘real dad,’ as he called him, and he wouldn’t be able to see his ‘real mom.’ His sad words as he walked away were, “I miss my mom.”
When I read or think of the scripture that says, “Hear oh Israel, the Lord, thy God is one,” I can’t help but think God is saying He’s lonely. Maybe He’d like someone just to sit beside Him, to be there when something funny happens in this world. Maybe He wants us to be flexible enough with our time that if life gets in the way in the early morning, we still make time to visit later on. Maybe He wants to know where He fits on the to-do lists of our lives. Maybe He’s waiting to hear the “I miss you and don’t want to be where you aren’t.”
February 20, 2010 at 09:52 pm
awesome. this speaks to my heart. thanks.