The Introduction

I like to write short stories sometimes before I go to sleep at night. It somehow helps me sleep, getting ideas/thoughts out onto paper. Funny, right? Well, anyway I wrote this short story last night:


I don't know the exact moment I finally came to the realization that my life looked like a sticky piece of gum on the bottom of a cheap pair of tennis shoes. Somewhere between the line at Starbucks and the empty tank of gas in my car it must have begun to register. On the side of the road I sat in the dirt with my head between my knees and cried. Thirty years ago I was without a care in the world, just a tiny bundle in the arms of a woman I never had the chance to call "mom". So many innocent babies born into the world everyday, and you'd think God would make a safer place for them. But why should He care, He's only the Creator of the universe. Joe told me once that God created man because He was lonely. I asked him if that was in the Bible and he said, "I don't read what I can't understand," so in other words he hasn't even the read the book. Even if God did care about people, He's sure never took the time to introduce Himself to me.


Several yards away stood a man in a pair of blue jeans with a white t-shirt. He observed the scene before him with a deep frown. A woman in her late twenties or early thirties sat in front of a run-down toyota, weeping. He sighed and took off his Yankee's cap and scratched the top of his head. He shoved back on his cap and called out to the woman. Having not received a response, he called out louder and stepped towards her. Immediately, her head shot up and she looked puzzled until she turned and saw him approaching from across the street. A look of embarassment or annoyance, he wasn't quite sure which, crossed her face. She wiped her face with her hands and pushed back her curly brown hair.
He came up beside her and asked her if she was alright. She only nodded and looked away. He asked if her car had broken down and he received a sharp "no". He attempted asking her if she needed any help or a phone call perhaps, but she completely ignored him.
Seeing that he wasn't very welcomed, having interrupted some sort of what appeared to be an emotional breakdown, he made his exit. He had only gone a few feet when he suddenly felt a tug at his heart. He knew the polite thing to do would be to let the lady be, but something inside of him new that if he walked away he would be making a huge mistake.
He took off his cap again, scratched his head, and shoved it back into place. He turned around and stood in front of the woman again. "Miss?" He expected another look of annoyance but received instead a face full of suprise.
"I'm sorry to bother you, but I don't feel right leaving you here like this." She stared up at him and he knelt down until he was eye level with her. "Is there something I can do to help you?" He watched her open her mouth and close it as if she was about to argue that she had already told him she didn't need help but changed her mind. "I know you don't seem like you really want my help, but look, I can't just leave you out here. It's going to get dark soon and you can't sit out here alone all night, it's not safe."
She looked him in the eye and raised her chin saying, "Why should you care?"
"Well, because it looks to me like there isn't anyone else around to show you that they do." He watched as her eyes widened and began to fill with tears again. He thought he had hurt her feelings so he rushed to tell her, "You never know, maybe God sent me here to cheer you up," and grinned at her.
The tears began to pour and she covered her face with her hands. He felt sorry for this woman without knowing what was bothering her so much that she would be sitting in the dirt on the side of an old country road and what appeared to him, heartbroken. To think that if he hadn't decided to take a walk before dinner, he would not be sitting here having this extremely awkward conversation. He reached out his hand and touched her shoulder, half expecting her to jump back, but she didn't. Silently, he prayed for her, "God, you know this woman like no one else does. Help me to help her. Give me the words I need now to comfort her. God, give her peace right now."
He continued to sit with her for a while, praying for her until she stopped crying and she glanced up at him. She wiped her nose on her sleeve and sighed. "Do you believe in God?" she asked with her eyes fixed to some invisible spot on the ground.
"Yes, yes I sure do." He watched as she picked up a small rock from the ground and held it in the palm of her hand.
"Do you think God cares about me?" She continued to stare at the rock, moving it around on her hand with her index finger.
"Yes, don't you?" She looked up at him with a questioning look in her eyes and she shook her head.
"Listen, I don't know who you are or what your name even is, but I know that God knows all of that and that's good enough for me. There is no question in my mind that He cares about you. In fact, I know that today He wants to introduce Himself to you."
He watched in fascination as her face transformed from brokenness into a huge, beautiful smile.

You're blessed when you get your inside world - your mind and heart - put right. Then you can see God in the outside world.

Matthew 5:8

(The Message)