Dear Friends in Christ -
Crises big and small bring out the "real" you and me. I think it's why bad weather can be so stressful; it forces us out of our comfort zone - and people are liable to see us in raw form.
I witnessed two responses to small crises this week that I think are worth commenting on . . .
After the ice storm on Tuesday night, I drove my kids to daycare on Wednesday morning. As we drove, a huge branch from a tree broke off and landed across the road right in front of us, blocking the road in both directions. I stopped, said a prayer of thanks that it didn't hit us, put on the hazards and the emergency brake, and got out of the car to move the branch. The pick-up coming from the other direction stopped, turned around and went the other direction. The next car (an Audi) coming from the other direction also stopped. And waited. It took me a couple of minutes to push the branch out of the way and pick up the smaller limbs. As I finished up, the driver of the Audi (a fit, 50+ year old man) pulled alongside me as I stood in the road, rolled down his window and said, "You know, you could hurt yourself doing that." I was speechless. My mother told me if I couldn't say anything nice, not to say anything at all.
Yesterday morning, as I sat in my office at home saying my morning prayers, I looked out to see a man from our parish (a fit, 50+ year old man) opening the gate in the Rectory fence. He spent 20 minutes salting the driveway and sidewalk to help break up the ice-slick that completely covered everything because the snowplow guys forgot about us (and we ran out of salt at the end of the last storm). I was speechless - because of the lump in my throat.
"Which of these three, do you think, was a neighbor . . .?" (Luke 10:36a)
I'm so grateful to be part of a community which has neighbors in it.
Humbled and thankful,
Janet+
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