Something Like That

                  I watch them going in to work. They are tired, lonely and hurting even when they arrive. They move in pain and grimace as they approach the short flight of stairs into the building. Their walk is hobbled. Some use a cane or something like that for assistance. A hand may go up to steady themselves onto the railing or wall or nearby desk. Their weight shifts from side to side as they struggle forth. I wonder within myself what circumstance would cause them to endure their personal agony day after day. Even as they do they long for the brief respite of each weekend.

                  There are bills to pay and family to support. Each has their specific reasons for working the job that meets the needs which they have accumulated. Some have houses and lands they care for. Some have debt from schooling or medical bills or any number of sources that seemed to be a good idea at the time but now must be paid for. They have made commitments. They are often caught wondering “is it really worth all this effort?” They come in the cars try to afford, dressed in the clothes they have bought, seeking the reward which keeps them coming back. It is hard to keep coming back; harder as each year passes into the next. Still they come. Still they seek.

                  Then it comes. It always comes. It is quick and practiced. Just as soon as they see a face they recognize, their countenance changes. The smile, the greeting, the acknowledgement or something like that and then they move on. There is no less pain, not less difficulty, no change in circumstance. Yet the change has lifted their spirit just a bit. They were recognized and accepted and acknowledged as a being of worth. They are loved. Not intimately nor personally but as one human being, one special creation of the God of the universe, they know for just that moment that they are loved.

                  They are somebody, a person of value. They are not the big wheel who runs it all, but they are real and important enough to be known by face or name. It matters to them that someone cares enough to show that they matter. Their individual circumstances and position in life are not known but they are. Their inward sorrows and diseases and tragedies are hidden but they are seen and known. That makes the difference. Yes, there are comparisons made about lifestyles and families and hobbies in casual conversations. Yes, each is seen as appropriate and worthwhile for the one to whom they apply. Then again it comes or something like that. Throughout the day as the interchanges happen, they are established and reestablished as individuals of value to the community in which they exist. The work they do is the bond which brings them to the same location. The success they enjoy in providing a part of the whole gives them sustainability in the community.

Then at the end of the day they struggle out to their vehicles. A parting acknowledgement is often the final lifting of spirit before being separated. It carries them forward. They are energized by having been known. They think of the many steps before them. They dwell on the evening’s responsibilities and burdens under which they must labor. They know the practiced routine of the hours between work and sleep. And they know they will come again. Tomorrow they will do it again. They will struggle to be there. To find again that acknowledgement that they matter; that they have worth; that they are loved.

                                     Yet I am puzzled. Why all these great lengths to discover what is already theirs. It is just a prayer away. The creator God of the universe designed everything imaginable to show His greatest creation that He loves them individually, completely and unreservedly. He made a world for them to dwell in and provided the most marvelous views of the heavens and stars that one could imagine. He gave them each other for companionship and intimacy. All so they could know His love. All so they could be with Him and He in them. Yet they chose to go looking for love or something like that in all the wrong places. They have forgotten Him because He is seldom found it physical form that their eyes may behold. They have believed lies because they could not patiently wait on the truth.  Even though He came to cover their most grievous transgressions at His own expense, still they did not understand. They still did not acknowledge Him and love Him and just be His as He intended from the beginning.

                                     It is not too late. He can still be seen. He can still be touched and known and loved. It takes a simple prayer. Something like, “Dear Jesus You are God I want to be in my right place with you. Please forgive me and make me what you desire me to be.” Something like that.

SMHG John

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