The Person Next to Me

My boys and I are a walking circus act rolling through the grocery store. I strap JJ to myself in his carrier and, thankfully, Ace is still small enough to sit in the front of the cart. Typically, my game plan for getting groceries is to get in and get out. There’s a limited window of time in the morning and I’m looking to get done as fast as possible.

Earlier this month when I pulled into a prized parking spot right next to the carts, I knew I had one hour before lunch time chimed and my two happy boys waving at everyone in sight would turn into melty, hangry kids. So we zoomed from aisle to aisle, avoiding slow walkers and navigating around phone-chatters oblivious that their cart has become an issue for anyone wanting to get to the eggs.

With a cart full of our food for the week, I hurried my way to the checkout. Despite the juggling act it requires, I typically choose self-checkout to get through and out of there as fast as we can. This particular trip JJ was showing signs that he was about to melt into a pile of mush, so pressure to get to the car was building.

While I was scanning items with one hand and using the other to catch whatever Ace could reach in the cart and aggressively hand to me, a young boy came into my view. He must have been about seven or eight years old. “Would you like me to help bag your food for you?”, he asked. My gut reaction was to say no thank you, I can do this much faster myself. But, his face was so eager I just couldn’t turn him away. I looked up at his mom who gave me a smile of approval and I told him, “That would be great.”

His mom walked him over to the bags and started teaching him not to put the milk on top of the bread and be very careful picking up the eggs. They finished up, and I thanked him as he made his way back to their place in line.

On my drive home, I started processing what had just happened. If one of my boys spotted a mom who was trying to juggle just a little too much and wanted to help her, I would be beaming with pride over his servant’s heart. I’d love the opportunity to not just teach him the techniques of bagging groceries, but get to encourage his instinct to lend a hand to those around him.

So why was I so hesitant to let this considerate boy help me?

Sometimes, I get so caught up in my day-to-day busyness that making room for anything outside of that is an inconvenience.

But, over and over again in the Gospels we see that’s just not how Jesus showed us how to run our lives. Whenever people interrupted Jesus when he was already in the middle of something, He didn’t see them as an inconvenience. His reaction was usually the opposite! He slowed down and took time to connect with the person.

In Mark 5, a man’s daughter is dying. He falls at Jesus’ feet and pleads for Him to come to his house and help her. A large crowd of people was pressing in all around Jesus on His way to heal this young girl. A part of this crowd was a woman who, we’re told, has had a bleeding issue for many years that has intensely destroyed her life. She spent all she had on trying to be cured, and instead she had only gotten worse.

She had heard stories of Jesus healing other people and thought if she could just get close enough to touch the fringe of his clothes, He had the power to finally bring her the healing she lost everything trying to achieve.

And she was right! She reached out and touched his garment and was immediately healed!

This is an amazing story in itself- but Jesus does something even more radical after she touches his garment:

“And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched me?” And he looked around to see who had done it. But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” Mark 5:30-34 (ESV)

Jesus was in the middle of a dire situation- He was on his way to save a dying girl’s life! But something happened on the way. This woman needed him. This woman reached out for Him. And He took the time to stop what He was doing and connect with her, showing her the love she needed.

His pressing agenda wasn’t more important than what was happening right next to Him.

Lunch time ticking closer and a squirmy baby was enough time constraint for me to count anything outside of my plan inconvenient. But, what’s more time sensitive than Jesus showing a heartbroken father He could heal his dying daughter? Yet, Jesus still stopped long enough to connect with this woman who reached out for Him.

Every morning, I make a mental to-do list. Having a plan for the day isn’t a flaw- we all have responsibilities we need to get done! But, while I’m working my way through my list in the day, I’m asking God to open my eyes to the people around me.

I want to have the awareness of the people right next to me that Jesus had.

Since my encounter with that young boy at the store, I’ve been back getting groceries. Ace is a bird when it comes to eating, but JJ is a HOUSE. He could out-eat his older brother any day. So it wasn’t long before I found myself back in line with a full cart. But this time I decided to checkout with an actual human. It was my small effort to try to slow down and be present in the lives around me while checking off my to-do list.

And you know what I found? It was actually enjoyable!

My boys’ unswerving determination to wave at the cashier and bagger until they wave back always brings a smile. And I got to have a few minutes of adult conversation in the midst of my circus act.

Slowing down to acknowledge the people around me ended up being more filling to me than checking all the boxes off my list at the end of the day!

What do you do with your “to-do list” after you’ve made it for the day? Do you hand it to God and hold tight to the pen so nothing gets added, or are you willing to hand Him the pen with your list?

I wonder how different your heart would be at the end of each day if you decided in the morning that when interruption comes, I’m not going to push it off as inconvenient but instead, following Jesus’ example, slow down to connect with who’s right next to me.

From one of His children to another,

Christi