I'm in a local gift shop, purchasing an appreciation thingamabobbit for one of my agency volunteers. It's a nice day; this is a fun store to poke around in, and I'm in no great rush to get back to the office. I patiently wait at the cash register while the clerk is busy on the phone; she keeps making apologetic gestures to me while addressing her caller in a brisk, wrap-it-up voice. Finally she returns to the register.
"I'm so sorry," she exclaims as she rings up my purchase. "That was my husband. He's always calling me at work. It drives me crazy." She rolls her eyes in exasperation.
I shrug. "Don't worry about it. I'm not in a hurry."
The clerk continues, "He calls me every day to tell me he loves me." She sighs a martyr's sigh.
I'm a little confused. Maybe I didn't hear her right. "Pardon me?"
"He calls me up every day," she explains, sounding mightily peeved, "just to tell me that he loves me. He's always interrupting me right when I'm in the middle of something here."
"Gee -- that sounds like a nice problem to have," I murmur, as I'm thinking, What is the matter with you?
"He's nuts," she continues, shaking her head. He's always writing me dumb little notes, too. I don't know what that's about."
My God -- the horror.
She hands me my package, managing a brief, retail smile. "Have a nice day!" Then the frown returns. Another irritated sigh.
I wonder if this is how we seem, what we sound like, to God, sometimes: "...always bugging me...sending me these goofy messages...telling me, 'I love you'...what's up with that?..."
15 comments:
I love it that in the US you have that great term appreciation gift - what's more you buy / make and GIVE gifts to people. I bless your spirit of Generosity that -to us in europe - seems to run through your veins.
This post really is spot on. I felt pity (and a little envy) for the lady in the store - and so loved as I read the end of your post - God does phone us all the time and bombard us with love letters, note and yeah appreciation gifts too.
Thank you for using your gift shop encounter to open my eyes and soften my heart too.
be blessed :)
Sometimes when we have the love right at our doorstep, we don't know what to do with it. Then, when it is no longer there, we long for it.
She doesn't know how fortunate she is. There are women who wish their husbands would do the same.
Thanks for sharing your story with us.
Cathy
LC, this story is right in line with my sermon for tomorrow; would you mind if I incorporated it?
Songbird: Go for it, sister!;-)
Thanks!
What's wrong with me? Love, to me, has always been conditional. I sometimes feel I don't "do" love! I never feel God loves me, except as a member of the human race as a whole.
Duh! Maybe I'm just thick!
LC,
LOL. I saw a bit of myself in that. My BF is always "interupting" for such calls. I don't like telephones anyway...but perhaps you've caused me to step back and appreciate what I have.
That's a great analogy. It would be a perfect sermon illustration. Go, Songbird!
Hmmm... I think I will call the LH just to tell HIM I love HIM ... for a change instead of the other way around.....
Kept thinking "poor guy"...
Lorna: I know a pastor's spouse whose parish sponsors Slovakian seminary students for summer internships here in the States. She was telling me that their latest student was very interested in volunteerism in America; with the old regime gone in Slovakia, they really need community volunteers, but because of their history and their economic issues it's hard to get people to step forward and help. The student wanted to know: What is it that makes people in America volunteer? And the thing is...we're actually losing volunteers in this country due to changes in demographics and values.
Nicodemia: I wish I had a good answer for you...because for me the immediate experience of the love of God has been a mostly unbidden thing. My only "preparation" has been keeping a steady daily prayer discipline. To stretch the metaphor further -- maybe it's like sending one's own note to God; "I'm interested and I'm listening."
*Christopher, I'm not too big on the romance of phone calls either. (Not that I'd hang up, mind you, if some future Sweet Baboo decides to call me and whisper sweet endearments into the receiver.;-))
My preferred endearment modality is the note. Yes -- I am a note writer. A note writer and flower giver. For the record.;-)
At this point, I'm so starved for affection that I'd probably welcome an otherwise-dreaded phone call from a future Luv o' Me Life (otherwise, I, too, prefer the Epistolary Romance . . . oh, and hot sex ;-p)
Yeah, great analogy re the UberLover there, LC. Ungrateful clods that we are.
J.C. I know a lonely butcher lass who seems to be looking for a good time, LOL. (My counter encounter, blogged a couple of weeks ago, where I didn't quite do the math until I was many miles away.)
Oh LutheranChic, that was WONDERFUL!
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