This weekend at church, I was able to peek into someone elses life. I saw an amazing love shared between a mother and her son and I saw an amazing love of God.
Sitting in my chair, waiting for the music to start, my mind wandering through the day. I was thinking about my son's future and other worries. All of which are normal everyday stresses that can creep into your life, that are truly, if you think about it, inconsequential compared to the life problems others may be facing.
Just as we stood for the music, a woman walked past us pushing her teenaged son in a wheelchair. I assumed they were going to go all the way to the front so he could see, because there were no rows close by to accomodate a wheelchair. What she did next surprised me a little. This small lady and her son stopped two rows up from us and she bent down and started to lift her son from the chair. I was instantly torn. Do I help? Would it really be helping if I ran over there and told her I could do it for her? She obviously didn't have anyone else with her to do the heavy lifting so she had to do it herself to get here. Would it be insulting? While I was wrestling with what the right course of action should be, she lifted him lovingly in her arms and tried to turn him into the row to seat him but the wheelchair rolled down to get in the way. I reached out and pulled the chair back for them, she smiled, "Thank you so much."
I returned to my seat as a woman with very thick glasses, was assisted to her seat by a man. Holding on to his arm, he led her into the row a few seats and they settled in. She turned to the side screen, which was 15 feet above our heads, and smiled.
Worship had started the second song as I was looking up at the screen above my head trying to figure out how the woman in front of me could possibly see anything from a screen that close. Why wasn't she watching the stage or the screen across the room?
My attention was drawn away from the screen by the way my wife squeezed my hand. It was the type of squeeze attached to heart felt emotions. When I turned to ask, I was instantly brought to tears by what I saw. The mother had returned after placing the wheelchair out of the way and was standing in the row of seats holding her son up in front of her swaying back and forth to the music. The amount of strength and love it took for her to hold her son up so that they could worship together simply floored me.
During service, when our Pastor began speaking, he encouraged us all to follow along in our Bibles, if we brought them..... Every weekend he leaves that sentence hanging in the air and every weekend I tell myself that I really should start bringing my bible to church. The woman in front of me looked away from the large screen over our heads an pulled her bible out of her bag. I figured out very quickly why she had been using the video screen closest to us. My heart sank a little more when I realized she could not see any other way, even with her glasses she could not see the stage. She opened her Bible to follow along with the service and in order to read it she had to literally touch her nose to the page.
I know that what our Pastor spoke about that day was important in my life, (making wise decisions) it always is, but what I learned within the first twenty minutes of the service, sitting in a section of the room that we don't normally sit, was just as important.
I learned that I have no excuse. If a woman who can not see the pages unless she is a half inch from them can read the Bible, I have no excuse not to read it as steadily as I should.
I learned that I have no right. A mother lifts her son at least three times before she gets to church. She has to dress him, feed him, and completely care for him, selflessly. She brings him to church and she lifts him up so they can worship together. They sing together. I have no right to complain about my life at all. My worries, my doubts, and my fears seem petty and selfish compared to what I can only imagine she goes through......and yet there she stands, smiling, singing, and holding her son.......loving God.
They have all shown me that there is no problem in life that God can't handle, let it go, lay it at his feet, become the person you were meant to be, and be thankful for what you have.
