Sunday, December 15, 2024
The petite man wearing thick glasses, sporting graying hair and a full beard, met the pastor on the sidewalk beside the church sign announcing a free meal that evening. The pastor noticed the man’s involuntary movements as his arms and legs appeared to dance to a rhythm only he could hear. The pastor looked at her watch and noted that the meal wouldn’t start for another ninety minutes. The man wasn’t concerned about the wait, only concerned that he had found the correct location for the night’s dinner.
“Do you know what they are serving tonight?” he asked the pastor. The pastor, having fielded several phone calls to the church that afternoon on this same subject, could easily respond, “The menu for tonight is potato soup, garden salad, rolls and butter.” “What’s for dessert?” was the next question to be asked. The pastor, facing the man, about a yardstick’s distance between the two, knew the answer to this query too. “Ice cream,” she said. The man’s delight was evident in his wide smile and joyful eyes. “Ice cream is so much better than cake,” he offered. The pastor nodded in agreement, “I’m with you on that one,” she said.
And then suddenly, with no warning, the man leaned forward, his bearded face quickly bridging the gap to the pastor’s face, where the pastor, unprepared to say the least, received a big, sloppy kiss right on her surprised lips. The pastor took the man’s gesture in stride and wondered: Was such excitement all due to the prospect of some warm soup, a garden salad, two buttered rolls, and ice cream for supper? Most likely not, the pastor reasoned. She had a smile on her face as she returned to her church office thinking, “Thank you God for this chance encounter.” The pastor further thought that the man’s spontaneous action of a sloppy kiss was obviously his thankful exuberance that he had been noticed and treated as a deserving and loved child of God.
And anytime we notice another person and treat them as deserving and loved by God - that is God’s love made visible!
Prayer – God of amazement and wonder, remind us that in chance encounters we can show others the love you have shown to us. Tune us into those times so that we can make your love visible in the places we are planted. This we pray. Amen.
Rev. Cynthia Klingemier,
District 4 Regional Elder