Here is a touching story for this time of year: A woman (who is a Unitarian minister) was travelling with her husband and 2 children on Christmas day on this long grueling trip and they stopped at a roadside café, which was nearly empty. As they are waiting for their meal, her 1 yr starts waving from his high chair and starts calling to someone on the other side of the restaurant: “Hi there! Hi there!” to someone sitting on the other side of the restaurant. To his mother’s dismay it turns out to be this wreck of a guy with tattered clothing, who is unkempt, in dirty clothes, unwashed and is a homeless drunk. He is calling back to her son “Hi there baby boy! I see you buster!” and the two continue back and forth. She and her husband exchange looks and a few other patrons in the restaurant exchange glances with each other and raise their eyebrows. Nobody is amused by what is going on. They eat their meal and the disturbance continues. Now the old guy was shouting across the room “Do you know paddy cake? Atta boy! Look at that – do you know peek-a-boo? Look at that he knows peek-a-boo”. The parents were cringing with embarrassment and even their 6 yr old says, “Why is that old guy talking so loud?” So she tried to turn the 1 yr old around, but he screamed and twisted around to face his new buddy, so that didn’t work. Not even wanting to finish their meal, her husband got up to pay the bill and took the older son to the car. The woman lifted the baby in her arms and prayed to herself that she could pass by the old drunk without further commotion. Clearly, God had other plans though. She approached him and her young son reaches out to his new friend with both arms outstretched in a child’s pick me up signal and she could see the man’s eyes were pleading “please would you let me hold your baby”. There wasn’t time for an answer, the boy propelled himself into the old man’s arms and for a few long moments there was a communion – an old man and a young boy in a love relationship. She could see the tears beneath the man’s lashes as her son laid his head on his shoulder. And he gently rocked and cradled the boy. And then he looked straight into her eyes and firmly said, “You take care of this baby”. When he reluctantly handed the baby back it was as if he was tearing away from his own heart. His final words to her were “God bless you – you’ve given me my Christmas gift”. She mumbled something and turned and rushed out to the car, her own tears flowing freely and her only thought was “My God, my God, forgive me” This set off in me a reflection of how many moments of my life have I dismissed someone and made assumptions and not seen the humanity in them. Like her, not seeing that this man had love, vulnerability and tenderness in him. We get very 2 dimensional. It set off a reflection that is an ongoing one because like everyone it is very easy to see the mask when we are stressed and not take the time and not really look at what is behind the mask,” – Tara Brach https://youtube/watch?v=aeEgfvdPV24 at approx 29 min mark
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 14:29:36 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015