Missed opportunity

It hit 97 degrees this past Wednesday and I thought that was very good reason to plan to be near water. We recruited fellow bathers and made the trek north a little ways—through farm country, green and hazy with heat—to Stoneboro and its hidden little lake that evidently isn’t so hidden, as everyone within a 20 mile radius seemed to be there.

Our kids were digging a hole, deep, to catch water and make their own little lake on the shores of the Sandy Lake. They worked diligently, and patiently, as a little girl—about 2—from the blanket behind them found their work more interesting and appealing than her loud mama.

She’d run her fat baby legs down into their excavation sight, take their tools, get right up in their faces and then her mama would follow—yelling and stomping—retrieve her and threaten with a spanking.

And then it’d happen again.

And again.

And again.

And now the mama’s fuse is a little shorter and she’s on her phone and threatening to leave and “it’s all your fault!”

The child wasn’t fazed. At all. Seems she learned awhile ago to tune out that voice.

I stood nearby, observing the scene created by this mother and child, ready to step in on behalf of my child, if need be. And I judged.

I, who knows the hope of salvation, who walks in the Light, looked upon this lost woman and judged her in her darkness.

I judged her empty threats, her impatience, her lack of control over her child. I judged her too-small-suit that was not covering her too-large-rolls. I even judged the marks all over her skin and recoiled at her child’s close proximity to my own, ‘cause ya know, looks an awful lot like scabies…

Who am I? Could I have looked more less like Christ if I was trying?

“As much as you’ve done it unto the least of these…”

Took me three days to recognize the opportunity I passed up. To show Jesus to this least woman.

It wouldn’t have taken much at all to kneel down in the sand with a shovel next to her child, next to my child, who I tell about Jesus daily, and show him how to show His love to a lost mama and her love-hungry baby.

I am humbled and pray for eyes to see the opportunities I’ll have today to show Jesus to people who need to see Him. 

The high dive at Sandy Lake