Who are our one anothers?
Becky Bader My friends were riding bikes, playing basketball, and hanging out at the soda fountain at Paul’s Pharmacy. They were doing all the fun things kids in Bellville did during the summer: going to movies, having slumber parties, roller skating in Wallis, swimming at the city park, eating at The Hill, and simply running around the neighborhood. And while they were having a blast, I was flat on my back in bed – very sick – for the entire three months, watching Batman and Gilligan’s Island and Andy Griffith. In black and white. And not very happy about it.
Aunt Speedy came to visit me at the beginning of that summer with a big box full of little gifts all for me! But her instructions were clear: I could only open one present a day.
The gifts weren’t presents that cost a lot of money, but presents that brought a lot of encouragement. Small things, funny things, personal things, home-made things. Most definitely the “small things” referred to in Zechariah 4:10. Not on the scale of a temple being rebuilt, but definitely on the scale of a life being rebuilt. And certainly helpful to a young devastated girl who desperately desired to be out with her friends. Who needed something to look forward to each day. Aunt Speedy’s small gifts did exactly that.
I still have one of the gifts, a treasured poem she wrote just for me. It’s now forty-five years old and includes one line I’ll always remember: “God wants her life to count for him in big or little things.”
Aunt Speedy didn’t live long enough to see the impact her blessing had on me, but I think she knows nevertheless. And she’s still encouraging me through this poem. Reminding me that God wants my life to count for Him in big or little things.
In John 13:34, Christ commands us to “love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.” And that’s only one of the many times God’s Word tells us repeatedly to love one another. To encourage one another. To think about “the interests of others” as Philippians 2:4 tells us to do. And there are many one anothers in our world. In our day.
Aunt Speedy wasn’t my aunt; she was that sweet little lady who was everyone’s aunt at our church. And the way she lived her life showed many of us how to love one another in small ways that matter greatly. And how God wants our lives to count in big and little things. She certainly showed me.
Today, I’m praying for God to show me all the One Anothers he has placed in my path wherever I might find myself. And to help me remember that no gift is too small to make a difference. Sometimes it’s not the present, but being present - the gift of caring and listening – that is enough to change another’s day.
Reader Comments (1)
these stories are starting to have a Prairie Home Companion tone.