Scene to Avoid

“Kathryn, give me the keys.”
“Mom, I want to drive.”
“Just give me the keys.”
I come close, I hush to her,
“I don’t want to wait outside the car door
with her yelling.”
The keys are given to me.
I go to the other side of the car where underway there is a scene. I want to avoid it. I unlock, slither in, and hope I’m unnoticed. I unlock the driver’s side.

A young mom is pleading, yelling, crying for her eight to nine year old son to get in the car. He is standing in front of a woman in a wheelchair.
The woman in a wheelchair, by now I’m gathering is the grandmother. She is trying to reason with him. He seems to be seeking moral support from her.

As I struggle with my moral dilemma, do I pray with her or pray to God, all I want is Kathyrn to head for dodge, inside I’m screaming for her to bolt. I’m looking like a ninny, a whimp. Hopefully I’m the only one who is noticing.

NOT! Kathryn, my sixteen year old, suggests I pray with this lady.

I take a deep, yoga, long held, breath. I know what my Savior calls me to do. I read about this in his Word. I talk about this to my Sunday School Children. Now a real life application confronts me and I go and treat it as if I am in a Cafeteria a la carte line. Maybe another situation will present me with an opportunity, hopefully hypothetical, but for now Kathryn really should get out of this parking lot so that she can get to work on time.

I roll down the window.
“Mam, Can I pray with you.”
She’s at my window in no time.
I put my arms around her and pray.
She is melting in my arms. Her son, the woman in a wheelchair, the other older woman sitting in the car are watching, quietly.

“Thank you so much. That is the nicest
Thing anyone has ever done for me. I am so sorry
For the scene.”

I look at her with my eyebrows apologetically raised and
Point to my sixteen year old.
“It was her idea.”

She looks beyond me and thanks Kathryn.
She tells me her name and her son’s name and we share
A few more words. She does go to church.
She is a beautiful young mom with challenges that
Today seemed overwhelming.

As we finally drive out of the parking lot
I thank Kathryn for pushing me.
I feel like a real live Anne Kiemel from the ‘70’s.

Oh, the opportunities I have missed
and Oh, today the opportunity seized
because my sixteen year old pushed me into it!

“ A little child will lead them.” Isaiah 11:6