Christian Writers Circle

His Time of Delivery

by

Kathleen Shore

     The way my physical body felt, it seemed as though accomplishing my last errand of the day was like setting out on a voyage into a dense wooded hillside on foot, with both girls on my back, for about 100 miles…. just to reach our neighborhood Kroger.

But believing we are “His love roaming,” I prayed my condition would not dull my senses and that I would not miss Father’s appointments of delivery because of my need to finish the task.

We kept our steps light hearted as we found joy in greeting each one we passed, and just as we turned down our last aisle, there came little Anna.

In her late sixties and no taller than my ten year old daughter, Anna is a treasure that very few ever notice or give thought to as valuable.

As my girls ran ahead to give her a hug, I notice she was wearing rubber cleaning gloves that reached her shoulders, “And why was she pushing an industrial size garbage bin, that she couldn’t even see over?” I thought to myself….

Without reserve I joined Isabel and Acacia in clogging up the aisle to hug Anna and ask how she was doing. In response, her little hand came up to cover her face and she began to cry.

She was so worn from all the harassment in her day…. a day that resembled the day before, and the day before…. people in a hurry with their groceries, no grace, no kind word….  with a lot of the opposite, and physically exhausted from being moved around by managers to jobs that no one else wanted to do.

With our hearts plowed by Father God, I laid my hand on little Anna and began to pray as people somehow found their way around us in pursuit of their goods.

So beautifully, God’s love became the fulfillment of everything.

My need was met by reaching out to hers….

My receiving was wrapped up in the giving….

My pain lifted in being broken for hers….