Sharing my gift with you

Caelestic charisma (God’s gift)

God gave me a gift the other night. I want to share this gift with you as it shouldn’t be just mine to keep.

A couple of weekends ago at about 7:30 in the evening we finally stopped working on the house and decided to make a run to Lowes for materials and to Walmart to restock our almost bare cupboards. My daughter was staying at Grandma’s because she wanted to help her can tomatoes so it was only the three of us going.

We seemed to be in Lowes for a long time. It’s so hard to get me out of that store sometimes. I think we left Lowes around 9:30. By the time we left Scott was complaining of his legs hurting and needing some rest so he offered to wait in the car with Trev while I shopped for the necessities myself. Now that I think about it, I specifically asked him to let me out at the door and then go park as I was getting pretty tired myself. How silly that I felt that I just couldn’t walk 50 feet to the door and make it out of the store alive.

Soon after going in and browsing I realized, wow, this is kind of peaceful, I’m going to take my time. They will probably fall asleep in the car anyway and it’s not often that I get to shop all by myself. So I did. I was in there for a long time. My feet were starting to really hurt. After filling my cart ½ way with “stuff”, I finally made it over to the grocery section and as I was coming around a corner I saw a man, not much older than myself, pushing his severely handicapped son who looked to be between 17 and 20 years old, in a wheelchair and pulling the grocery cart behind him. My first thought was to offer to take the cart and help him throughout the store. Why didn’t I do that? I remember feeling so awful for him and also wondering why he would be out shopping at that time of night. I now realize that it is probably much easier to shop late and get around the store with his burdens (why did I think to use that word?), I realize now that that is probably not as he sees it. I’m sure he doesn’t feel his son is a burden, the grocery cart maybe but his son he probably feels is a blessing. I'm quite sure he feels that way.

We both went our separate ways. A short time later as I struggled with my overflowing cart, thinking how gosh darn heavy it was, I decided I had better leave the store before I couldn’t push the cart even to the checkout lane. As I was unloading my groceries at the checkout counter, I looked over and saw this same man and boy also checking out a few rows over. I was blessed to see this father look down at his son who was looking up at him and kiss him on the forehead as he had probably done a million times. It was wonderful to see him so openly loving to him. No fear of what others would think. I saw a true man that night.

For the first time that I can remember, I needed two grocery carts that night as I had so many groceries and some that I for sure did not want to have squashed. As I struggled trying to turn the carts and maneuver them to the door, through the door (thank goodness for automatic doors) and then continued to struggle, turn and steer the carts to the van that was parked at the opposite end of the building, I thought for a minute that I would never be able to do it. Then once in the parking lot I kept thinking, wow, I’ll never make it there. I don’t think I can do this. I thought “Why tonight of all nights, did Scott not want to shop with me?” I think I know the answer now. I was supposed to receive something special from God and he would not have been able to give it to me if I was not alone.

As I slowly but surely made my way pushing one cart and pulling the other, the same as I witnessed the father of the boy doing with his cart and the wheelchair, I came up behind a very old mini-van that was smoking something terrible. At first I thought it was on fire. It sounded terrible too. My first thought was “Why would anyone drive something like that?” Then “Why don’t they get that fixed?” The driver finally got the engine to remain running and was able to back up and begin to pull away. As he backed up, got closer to me and start to leave, I could see that this was the man and the boy from the store. I instantly felt an overwhelming warmth inside knowing that I been given a gift from God as I quickly came to realize all that I have. I don’t have as many physical possessions as others and yet I have more than some. I not only have my health, I have the health of my entire family to be thankful for. There were several times during the last few hours that I wondered how I would be able to accomplish a task. How many challenges does this man face daily without question and probably without feeling sorry for himself? Determined, I made it to our van with both carts. I looked through the window to see Trevor curled up on Scott, both sound asleep. I leaned against the van and the tears flowed.