My mom was coming over today at 1PM to celebrate her
birthday. I hadn’t seen her in a few
weeks and I had flowers to pick up as well as a card. Things have been busy, and everyone has been
busy with things. Katie, Collin and I
pulled in at home after church. Marianne
drove separate and was already home with Brandon.
It didn’t take long when we walked into the door to get busy
again. Clean what needed to be picked
up. Let the dog out, because she pees on
the fireplace stones now (Yay…), sweep the kitchen, wipe down the
bathroom. Grandma is coming over and let’s
have the place look nice, because we are getting pizza!
It doesn’t make sense, but the kids clean because of it.
Everyone is busy. Everyone
is busy except Brandon.
Brandon is crying. In
the kitchen. While we are all busy doing
stuff.
“Buddy, what is wrong?”
Nothing.
“Buddy, why you crying?”
Nada. Just some
welling up tears.
“You want to tell me privately?”
A nod.
I take Brandon back into my bedroom. He’s still upset and won’t talk and I let him
know that’s OK. He can start talking
when he calms down. Because if you have
ever tried to talk to a 12 year old boy while he is sniveling and snot sucking
tears it’s as effective as talking to a 42 year old man doing the same
thing. You just let that happen.
Finally, Brandon breaks.
“Dad, you remember the video this morning in church?”
Of course I did. It
was a video, called "The Least" where the church left the building after hearing the message of the
day and went out to live their lives, busy.
Busy and ignoring others.
And immediately I knew.
I knew why he was hurting.
On the way home from church, on the corner of 131st
and Bell Road, was a woman standing with the sign. I couldn’t make much out as I turned the
corner in a hurry to get home but I saw the last words written: “GOD BLESS YOU”.
“Dad, nobody was stopping.
Nobody cared. Mom didn’t care,
she just kept driving!”
And he was hurting again.
He was hurting and a video that was meant to prove a point about how the
church wasn’t caring anymore was being lived out right in front of his eyes. Not just his Mom, but his Dad, too.
I looked at him. “You
want to go help her?”
A nod. A sniffle.
“Let’s go.”
A young man is walking along the ocean and
sees a beach on which thousands and thousands
of starfish have washed ashore. Further along
he sees an old man, walking slowly and
stooping often, picking up one starfish after
another and tossing each one gently into the
ocean.
On the way to pick up gift cards and food, Brandon asked
again. “Dad, why didn’t mom care?” I had to explain to him that people do
care. That his mom was trying to get
home to finish making a nice place for MY Mom and Step-dad who we haven’t seen
in weeks and were coming by. How we get
busy doing things for others and sometimes we lose sight of “the least of these”
as Christians and forget, not on purpose, but in our cares for others we miss
opportunities.
“Why are you throwing starfish into the
ocean?,”
he asks. “Because the sun is up and the tide is going out
and
if I don’t throw them further in they will die.”
“But,
old man, don’t you realize there are miles
and
miles of beach and starfish all along it!
You
can’t possibly save them all, you can’t even
save
one-tenth of them. In fact, even if you
work
all day, your efforts won’t make any
difference
at all.”
We stopped at the corner of 131st and Bell. She told us her name was Kristin. She had a falling out with her Dad a while
ago and hasn’t been home since. He lives
in Palos and he has seen her standing on the corner, but never stops. The cuts on her arm, the track marks and
burns covering her can give an idea of what kind of disagreements her Dad may
have had with her. Enough people gave up
on her.
But Brandon didn’t.
I introduced Brandon to her, explained why we were there and
what Brandon learned in church today. I
gave her my info if she needed someone to call.
The church address if she ever needed to stop by and asked her if she
had a home church that could take care of her.
Christians don’t just care for the body, we care for the
soul…
…when we aren’t being busy.
She said she had enough to stay at a 4 hour motel
tonight. So she could get some
sleep. I gave her the gift cards for
food and the lunch we brought her. And
then we left.
I looked at Brandon on the way home and I said to him “Buddy,
guard that heart. The one that cares for
people, the one that breaks for people in need.
Guard that and never let this cynical world take it from you. There is a verse that says ‘Guard your heart,
for out of it flows the issues of life’. Don’t ever give up on people.”
I saw the woman on the way home. I saw her and inside I felt that pang that
there is someone in need. But someone
else will help. Someone else will step
up.
And someone did. It was
my son.
The
old man listened calmly and then bent
down
to pick up another starfish and threw it
into
the sea. “It made a difference to that one.”
