A Note of Encouragement

from Ciloa

Do we encourage one another
only when we feel like it?

Jesus Among Us

Volume XVI, Issue 25

June 20, 2016

Jesus Among Us...by Susan Paradise

An ordinary day. I sit in a busy, noisy restaurant filled with diners. Countless conversations mingling into garble, dishes clamoring, background music playing. Suddenly a one-year-old begins to cry, quickly escalating to out-of-control wailing.

Conversations cease as heads turtle above short privacy walls...to see where the tiny culprit is, to wonder why her parents aren't doing something...to judge. Uncomfortable stillness moves among us as the little girl continues shrieking.

A crying one year old girl sitting in a high chair

Two tables away, a black woman...maybe in her mid-fifties...sits with her daughter and two little grandsons. She quietly leaves her family and walks over to the "scene of the crime". A red-faced teenage white mother frantically tries to stop the shuddering sobs.

Asking permission, the woman picks up the child. She holds her close and stands there...rocking the girl in her arms.

Slowly the child's sobs lessen as she gazes at the woman holding her, then glances at all the staring people sitting around them. Relaxing, she ceases to cry. Onlookers resume their meals and begin new conversations. All is back to normal...almost.

Still holding the little girl, the woman takes the young mom back to her own table. She hands the now quiet child to her own daughter and, with mom in tow, disappears into the restaurant's gift store.

Meanwhile, the woman's daughter jostles the child on her lap. Her two little boys watch wide-eyed, likely stunned with all that has happened.

The women soon return from the gift store. The young mom hands her little girl a brand new stuffed animal and coaxes her to come into her arms. The child does and they go back to their own table. Life goes on.

Once again with her family, the woman now reaches into a sack and pulls out a new toy for each of the boys at her table. Their faces light up. Then she leads her family in a blessing and they begin their meal.

Jesus Christ has been amongst us. I wonder how many noticed. What I do know for sure is that God noticed and was well pleased. An extraordinary day.

The King will reply, "I tell you the truth, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me." Matthew 25:40 NIV

To God be the glory!

Susan

A past member of the Ciloa Board of Directors, Susan Paradise actively ministers to hurting women. She and her husband, Fred, live in Greensboro, Georgia, USA.

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