We Are His Hands

Butterflies Alive! Ginter Botanical Gardens.  Copyright 2012: singeronthesand

Never walk away from someone who deserves help;

your hand is God's hand for that person.

Don't tell someone, "Maybe some other time,"

or "Try me tomorrow."

Proverbs 3:27-28  

Something happened in my life this week that reminded me yet again exactly who I need to be - for God and for others.  Last Sunday, a young lady in our congregation, who has been a member of my youth choir and youth handbell choir, walked up to me and gave me a ticket to her graduation.  In order to understand what a huge gesture this was, you need to know that around here, tickets to any graduation are worth their weight in gold - very difficult to come by.  This young woman gave me an unbelievable honor in asking that I attend her graduation.  I was astounded and deeply moved.

On my way home, however, the sniveling, complaining wuss side of me flooded my brain:  I HATE going to downtown Richmond; the traffic will be terrible; the ticket says you have to have a special parking pass sold only by the school in order to park next to the Siegle Center - that means I'll have to park clear down on Cary Street and hoof it for 7-8 blocks back up to Broad; I'll be hot and sweaty when I get there; the place will be a zoo and I hate crowds, she'll never know if I was there or not...  You get the picture: Poor little me.

In the midst of all that whining, God shone an idea of a different light:  You can take your camera and try to get some really cool pictures of her.  Her family doesn't have a camera like yours (few families do), and you can take your 55-250mm lens and get great shots from far away...  Suddenly I had a purpose, a responsibility, a gift that I could give to this family at their time of celebration.  Instead of focusing on me, I would focus on what I could do for her (and by extension, her family).  

I'm not about to sit here and spin you a fairytale about there being no traffic, or a close parking spot, or even a small crowd.  It was hot and sweaty, it was a long walk, there was really bad traffic (an accident on I-95), and it definitely was a zoo inside the Center.  But I was a woman on a mission, and I focused on my goal rather than on the hardships of reaching it.  I was able to capture several good shots of her graduation experience - photos that her family would not have if I had listened to my head instead of acting with my heart.