It's almost ten o'clock.It's been one of those busy days when I have not had the time to catch my breathe.I could do with a drink of something.I dive into my handbag and wonder if I have enough of change in me.I take out a fistful of coins and I start counting.My colleague who has just come in to take over, comments from one corner-'That's a lot of money!'.Actually it's not ,it's a lot of five and ten pences and I need one pound forty pence for a cold milkshake.I make it by a scratch but that has all of us grinning from ear to ear in a moment of cammadarie.
It is fascinating how simple threads of vulnerbility brings out the best in us.
Just this afternoon I had to go food-shopping.Having missed my breakfast I entered a cafe,ordered their cod and chips and settled down somewhere comfortable.Got talking with the lady behind the counter about bookshops in the area.A typically regional gentleman entered the cafe.Scrutinised the menu in the cafe for a bit too long and opted for the cheapest fare,after asking the lady a lot of questions .I continued to eat even as my ears were all up listening to the conversation.I felt a little uncomfortable but the kid behind the counter was exceptionally kind.Even as she took the order she must have asked so many times,'Is it all right?'-almost asking without words ,'Do you have enough?'
The sauce we have with our fare normally comes with the meal but here we had to pay 25 pence for two packets.I had taken two and used only one,when I heard the gentleman ask if he could have some sauce.When he heard he had to pay for it he decided not to take any.
I looked at the lady behind the counter put my sauce on the table-top ,cleared my table off my plates and I walked out of the cafe towards the book-shop.My predominant thought was how difficult it must be to be poor in England.
The older I get the more I realise how we need the vulnerable around us.
I have been going through the Gospel of John lately and a senior of mine always used to tell us how that gospel is just so special .......I always thought it was because of the the fifteenth chapter he often used to quote,I realised that one of the reason why it stands out is because John has caught the vulnerability of Jesus,the other gospels have perhaps not.
As I walked through the chapters like as though I was in it ,I began to understand ' a little 'of what it must have been like for our Lord.
A hebrew blessing I just learnt, runs something like this,'May the dust of your Rabbi's feet fall upon you'-
It is going to be no different if you really follow Him.
It is fascinating how simple threads of vulnerbility brings out the best in us.
Just this afternoon I had to go food-shopping.Having missed my breakfast I entered a cafe,ordered their cod and chips and settled down somewhere comfortable.Got talking with the lady behind the counter about bookshops in the area.A typically regional gentleman entered the cafe.Scrutinised the menu in the cafe for a bit too long and opted for the cheapest fare,after asking the lady a lot of questions .I continued to eat even as my ears were all up listening to the conversation.I felt a little uncomfortable but the kid behind the counter was exceptionally kind.Even as she took the order she must have asked so many times,'Is it all right?'-almost asking without words ,'Do you have enough?'
The sauce we have with our fare normally comes with the meal but here we had to pay 25 pence for two packets.I had taken two and used only one,when I heard the gentleman ask if he could have some sauce.When he heard he had to pay for it he decided not to take any.
I looked at the lady behind the counter put my sauce on the table-top ,cleared my table off my plates and I walked out of the cafe towards the book-shop.My predominant thought was how difficult it must be to be poor in England.
The older I get the more I realise how we need the vulnerable around us.
I have been going through the Gospel of John lately and a senior of mine always used to tell us how that gospel is just so special .......I always thought it was because of the the fifteenth chapter he often used to quote,I realised that one of the reason why it stands out is because John has caught the vulnerability of Jesus,the other gospels have perhaps not.
As I walked through the chapters like as though I was in it ,I began to understand ' a little 'of what it must have been like for our Lord.
A hebrew blessing I just learnt, runs something like this,'May the dust of your Rabbi's feet fall upon you'-
It is going to be no different if you really follow Him.
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