A
story from the Internet: "During my second month of nursing school our
professor gave us a pop quiz. I was a conscientious student and had breezed
through the questions until I read the last one: 'What is the name of the woman
who cleans the school?' Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the
cleaning woman several times. She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how
would I know her name?
"I
handed in my paper leaving the last question blank. Before class ended, one
student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.
'Absolutely!' said the professor. 'In your careers you will meet many people.
All are significant. They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do
is smile and say ‘hello.’ I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her
name was Dorothy."
The
story reminds me of the last question on my first Old Testament test in
seminary: "Who is the author of the text book?" I hadn't the
foggiest. On that same test we were asked to draw a map of Israel and indicate
where the Twelve Tribes were located, and by name. Needless to say, I did not
do well on that test, nor did the rest of my classmates. But like that young
student nurse, we learned our lesson. People and places and peoples' places in
life are very important – to them – and should be to us as well.
I
would like to be able to say that that first Old Testament exam sure was a
lesson to me. I would like to say that. The lesson took a long time in
learning. The question was important. The answer was more important, but the
lesson, the learning did not come without a lot of halts and hesitations along
the way. It is still too easy for me to be caught up in my own little world and
not be concerned about others.
(I’ve
probably told this story before because it has made a life-long impression on
me.) I remember years ago arriving at a new church. It was a downtown church
and many of the street people stopped for a cup of coffee and, in the winter,
to get out of the cold. It was winter and a very cold one. One young man was there
every day. It took me two months to learn his name because he wasn't important.
What was important to me back then, or so I thought, was to learn all the names
of all my parishioners. After all, they paid my salary. Larry only came for a
handout.
When
I finally realized what I had been doing, how unchristian I had been, I
apologized to him. He was kind enough to tell me it was nothing, maybe because
he was used to being ignored, maybe because he was more Christian than I was or
will ever be. But, as I said, I have never forgotten that incident in my life,
just as I have never forgotten that quasi-lesson my Old Testament prof perhaps
unknowingly tried to teach my classmates and me all those years ago. But it
took Larry, years later, for the lesson to sink in.
The
people we encounter in our daily lives are all important even though we don’t think
that is true. Maybe we encounter them and they us because that is God's plan
for them and God’s plan for us for us. As the prof said, they deserve our
attention, if all we do is say a simple pray for them.
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