Clay in the Hands

Yesterday I had to make a flying trip (literally) to El Paso to finalize the details for our upcoming mission trip to the area.  As I was boarding the plane to head home, I was behind a gentleman who was having a little difficulty managing his carry-on bags.  He had a roll-on bag and then a camera bag.  He was holding the camera bag by the strap as he attempted numerous times to place his larger bag in the overhead compartment.  I was 3 people behind him in line and couldn’t help, and unbeknownst to him, each time he attempted to wedge the bag into it’s unwilling home for the ride, his camera bag swung around and hit an elderly lady in the head who was already seated in the row in front of him.

The patient woman did nothing except smile at me as if to say, “Somebody please do something.”  From where I was standing, I could do nothing but smile back.  Inside I wanted to burst out laughing.  I mean the bag wasn’t really smacking her around – otherwise, doing nothing would have been insensitive and just wrong.  The bag was barely brushing her hair as she dodged it each time it swung around her head but it was still hilarious to watch.

As I sat through the flight, the picture of the bag swinging around and the helpless look of the elderly lady kept coming to mind.  Once I got over my immature side and began to think about the scene, I wondered how many times I have been unaware of imposing on others.

How often has my insensitivity toward those around me caused problems for someone else?  We are called to love God with all our hearts, minds and strength and to love others as ourselves.  This means we must be concerned about how our actions impact those around us.

Moral of the story: be careful when putting your luggage into the overhead compartment – or – pay attention to your actions and how they impact others, you may be the only Jesus that person sees today.