Time

Some things, if I'm going to do them at all, just take time. Like a really good scone.

The Unremarkable Day

I love this story. Sometimes I forget it happened, and then when I remember it I am touched with joy all over again. I'll try to relate it as faithfully as I can.

Several years ago a good friend came to visit for a few days. While he was at my house one day, he noticed a home improvement project that he wanted to work on. So I happily agreed. He got on the internet and found the best place to get the materials. It was a good distance from here but the savings and availability were worth it. So we jumped in my truck and took off.

After loading up with everything we needed at the hardware store, we returned to my house and started in. We soon discovered we had bought the wrong adhesive. There were several tubes involved. So we decided to take them back to the store and exchange them for the right ones.

This made for another  long-ish trip. But we were kind of in vacation mode. You know how it is when you are working on a home improvement project and you're still living a normal life? So everything still needs to keep going on while your home is torn up. Every little thing that doesn't go quite right has a potential to be very frustrating. That is not the way it was. We were good friends and comfortable together and enjoying everything we did together. So even driving to the store to exchange the adhesive was fun. There was no time table. This wasn't interrupting our day, this WAS our day.

I even remember mentioning, "There must be some reason we need to go back to that store. " I didn't have any particular spiritual insight, it's just the kind of thing that people say in that situation.

At the store we quickly found the right adhesive and I headed to the checkout to make the exchange. My friend made a stop at the men's room.

I chose a checkout with a young man at the register,  maybe in his late teens or early twenties. I had my adhesives and receipts and I plunked them down on the counter. He began to process the exchange, and I asked him "How are you doing today?" Without looking up, he said "Not very good. My dad died a short time ago, my brother is very sick and disabled and living at home with my mom and me, and my mother is struggling with serious depression. And my girlfriend just broke up with me today."

I stood there for a moment,  frozen in shock. There again, my question had been one of those things that we just say without expecting a real answer. And he had replied without hesitation and almost calmly. I think I said something like, "Oh my goodness."

Just then my friend showed up.  I introduced him to the young checker and then I said "This young man isn't having a very good day." He and my friend talked for a little bit and then my friend asked him a question that it never occurred to me to ask. He said to the young man, "Are you a believer?" Meaning a believer inJesus Christ. This stunned me a little bit, because it wasn't a question I had in my mind at all. But I paid attention, and I remembered that.

The young man said "Yes. Well, I used to be. I'm not so sure anymore." I confess that I don't remember the rest of the conversation they had. I felt like I was in a little bubble of holy joy. I do remember my friend asking the young man his name, and he said his name was Joshua. Then my friend said, "Your father named you well. Joshua was a brave man of God."

After they finished talking, my friend suggested that we pray together. So right there at the checkout we all bowed our heads and he prayed for Joshua. When we lifted our heads and Joshua opened his eyes they were clear and bright. He looked at us as if he just realized we were there. And he said, "Don't I know you? Have you been here before?" My friend and I both said no. I explained that I lived too far away to ever shop there. My friend explained that he was from out of state. Joshua  said, "I feel like I know you. There's something so familiar about you." Who was Joshua seeing? I like to think that who he saw was Jesus in us. "To them God willed to make known what are the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles: which is Christ in you, the hope of glory."  Colossians 1:27

We chatted briefly, said our goodbyes and headed out of the store with our adhesive. As I thought back on it, I realized the whole time that we were there no one interrupted us. No customers came to stand in line behind us, no supervisor came over to find out what was going on. It was as if we were all alone in the store. I don't even remember seeing another person that whole time.

This remarkable day still stands out in my memory. So why have I entitled this story The Unremarkable Day? I somehow feel that days like this ought not to be remarkable. It ought to be the normal thing for me to do as I go about the community and in other ways that I have the opportunity to interact with people. I want to be more like my friend, sensing  the Holy Spirit's prompting, being available for His use. God always makes time for people, He always makes a way. Our time with Joshua was not wasted. We still got back, we still finished the project, only with joyful hearts.

"...be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you... " 1Peter 3:15