I remember being young and wanting to nurse a wounded animal back to health. That sense of helping, that urge to assist a creature in desperate need, well, that feeling filled my youthful heart and spurned me into action. With shoe box in hand and love in my heart, I did my best to help. It was a good feeling.
I clearly recall that powerful feeling defining my heart long before the world tried to callus me in situational apathy. It was pure. It was real. Now, many may disagree but I’d like to think that this pure “spirit of aid” still exists in our society today. Think of it.
The Cincinnati biker gang, hard, mean, tough guys who advertise openly, offering aid and protection for any child too scared to stand up to abuse. My heart swelled to see these giant, hairy men escorting a tiny pigtailed child into the courtroom.
The old man who carried a crescent wrench with him as he carried out his neighborhood watch duties. To see this sweaty elderly man sitting cross-legged as he replaced a loosened chain for that pimply faced boy was to see grace and humility jointly served.
The unassuming mother who resolutely took in her son’s best friend. When that boy’s parents abandoned him she opened her home, made him her boy, and raised him to adulthood. Today, she hugs his children with the same fierceness of love that she had so selflessly given to him.
The retiring Mc Donald employee of 37 years, in fear of losing his one bedroom home because he was just too old to work, walking into his last day only to discover that the entire town had gotten together, paid off his mortgage, set up a trust to assist in monthly bills, then, threw him a retirement party that is still talked about today. These people loved this hard working man and they proved it.
Those stories of honest giving and unconditional care are REAL. They happen every day, all around us. In places you’d least expect, selfless humans are reaching out to help their fellow human. And yes, we help our fellow human like the wounded birds of our youth all the time. We do. I wistfully wonder how such incredible acts go unrecognized by so many. Perhaps these little miracles aren’t glorified or celebrated because it doesn’t fit the narrative of the world at large. I don’t know. I don’t care. These actions of grace happen ALL the time. And I will forever want to hear them.
And I think you do as well…
Lee
