greater love...

so the thankful thing has not been quite as successful as i was hoping. yet. today leaving work i was complaining about going to the grocery store. how i hated watching how much money i spend there, and how it bothers me that sometimes i have to go to both shoppers and aldi in order to spend the least amount of money, but still make relatively healthy dinners. i was frustrated because luke was in class and not with me, and that i can't carry anything over 10 pounds so i would have to make multiple trips to bring the groceries up from the car, and have a cart in the grocery stores, when normally we just carry the bags because it gets too crowded in the stores to maneuver well with carts.

i was in a bad mood. and my headache was only getting worse as i pushed my cart into the only open check out lane and started loading my groceries behind a mother and her two daughters.

i could tell that this family was probably not the most well-off family, like most of the families that shop at aldi. as the woman finished scanning the groceries the mom took our her credit card to pay. she scanned the card, and was told to enter a pin, which she couldn't because it was a credit card. they don't take credit cards at aldi. the woman, slightly confused because she didn't speak english well, took out the cash she had in her wallet and began to take things out of her cart. her daughter looked at her mom and smiled and began to help her remove the juice drinks, the ice cream and finally a box of cereal in order to get the total low enough so that the woman could pay with cash. i awkwardly offered to help her pay, but she declined, and i think she took my offer as an offer out of frustration for the long wait rather than a gesture to help. she smiled her thanks, and continued on, her little girls talking and giggling like nothing happened. this was probably a regular occurrence for them.

i debated whether or not to write this story here. i do it not because it reminded me to be thankful for what i have, or to remind you to do the same (we should do that anyway, we should give thanks always, not only when we see the misfortune of others). i tell this story because i haven't been able to get the beautiful face of that little girl out of my head as she searched for something to give to her mom to take out of the cart. and while juice drinks and ice cream are not essential items, that is not a choice that most of us have to make. and it's not a choice that a child should have to help make or watch her mom make.

the thing is that numbers and studies that come out about poverty don't capture something very real that happens so many places. and whether or not that mother is working, or is an illegal immigrant, or any of the other excuses we come up with not to extend a helping hand to those who do not have the luxuries that we have, it isn't that little girl's fault.

i tell this story not so that we think of that family and decide we're happy that is not us. i tell it because it needs to be told, because we need to do something about it. we need to stop looking for excuses not to help and instead look for all possible ways that we can. and not just because it's christmas. and not because we feel guilty. but because we're human and they're human and we have a God who made Himself human so that He could show us how to love others perfectly and without boundaries.

and if anyone had any reason not to, He sure did.