Angel's Craft
SMILE
The class was asked to go out and smile at three people and
document their reactions. I am a very
friendly person and always smile at everyone and say hello anyway, so, I
thought this would be a piece of cake, literally.
Soon after we were assigned the project, my husband, youngest
son, and I went out to McDonald's one crisp March morning. It was just our way of sharing special
playtime with our son. We were standing
in line, waiting to be served, when all of a sudden everyone around us began to
back away, and then even my husband did.
I did not move an inch... an overwhelming feeling of panic
welled up inside of me as I turned to see why they had moved. As I turned around I smelled a horrible
"dirty body" smell, and there standing behind me were two poor
homeless men.
As I looked down at the short gentleman, close to me, he was
"smiling." His beautiful sky
blue eyes were full of God's Light as he searched for acceptance. He said, "Good day" as he counted
the few coins he had been clutching.
The second man fumbled with his hands as he stood behind his
friend. I realized the second man was
mentally deficient and the blue eyed gentleman was his salvation.
I held my tears as I stood there with them. The young lady at the counter asked him what
they wanted. He said, "Coffee is
all, Miss" because that was all they could afford. (If they wanted to sit in the restaurant and
warm up, they had to buy something. He
just wanted to be warm).
Then I really felt it -- the compulsion was so great I almost
reached out and embraced the little man with the blue eyes. That is when I noticed all eyes in the
restaurant were set on me, judging my every action. I smiled and asked the young lady behind the counter to give me
two more breakfast meals on a separate tray.
I then walked around the corner to the table that the men had chosen as
a resting spot. I put the tray on the
table and laid my hand on the blue eyed gentleman's cold hand. He looked up at me, with tears in his eyes,
and said "Thank you."
I leaned over, began to pat his hand and said, "I did not
do this for you. God is here working
through me to give you hope."
I started to cry as I walked away to join my husband and
son. When I sat down my husband smiled
at me and said, "That is why God gave you to me, Honey. To give me hope." We held hands for a moment and at that time
we knew that only because of the Grace that we had been given were we able to
give. We are not churchgoers, but we
are believers. That day showed me the
pure Light of God's sweet love.
I returned to college, on the last evening of class, with this
story in hand. I turned in "my project" and the instructor read
it. Then she looked up at me and said,
"Can I share this?" I slowly
nodded as she got the attention of the class.
She began to read and that is when I knew that we as human beings and
being part of God, share this need to heal people and be healed.
In my own way I had touched the people at McDonald's, my husband, son, instructor, and every soul that shared the classroom on the last night I spent as a college student. I graduated with one of the biggest lessons I would ever learn: Unconditional Acceptance.
Much love and compassion is sent to each and every person who
may read this and learn how to ‘Love People and Use Things” ~ “Not Love Things
and Use People.”
courtesy
of Jolene
A COURSE IN MIRACLES [excerpt]
THINGS AREN’T ALWAYS WHAT THEY SEEM
Check out my web links page to see where I got my neat
new backgrounds.