|
Suddenly, Erick squealed with glee and said, "Hi there." He pounded his baby
hands on the high-chair tray. His eyes were wide with excitement as he bared
his mouth in a toothless grin. He wriggled and giggled with merriment. Nancy
looked around to see the source of his merriment.
It was a man with a tattered rag of a coat, dirty, greasy and worn. His pants
were baggy with a zipper at half-mast and his toes poked out of would be shoes.
His shirt was dirty and his hair was uncombed and unwashed. His whiskers were
too short to be called a beard and his nose so varicose, it looked like a
road map. They were too far from him to smell, but she was sure he smelled.
His hands waved and flapped on loose wrists. " Hi there, baby, hi there,
big boy. I see ya buster," the man said to Erik.
Nancy and her husband, Tom, exchanged looks, what should they do? Everyone in
the restaurant noticed and looked at them and then at the man. The old geezer
was creating a nuisance with their beautiful baby.
The meal came and the man began shouting from across the room, "Do ya know
patty cake? Do you know peek-a-boo? Hey, look, he knows peek-a-boo."
Nobody thought the old man was cute. He was obviously drunk. Tom and Nancy were
embarrassed. They quickly ate in silence, all except for Erik, who was running
through his repertoire for the admiring skid-row bum, who in turn, reciprocated
with his cute comments.
Finally they got through the meal and headed for the door. Tom went to pay the
bill and told Nancy to meet him in the parking lot. As she started out she
noticed that the old man sat poised between her and the door. "Lord, just let
me out of here before he speaks to me or Erik," she prayed. As she drew close
to the man, Nancy turned her back in an attempt to side step him and avoid any
air he might be breathing. As she did, Erik leaned over her arm and reached
with both arms in a baby's pick-me-up-position. Before she could stop him,
Erik had propelled himself from her arms to the man's.
Suddenly a very old smelly man and a very young baby tangibly expressed their
love for each other. Erik, in an act of total trust, love and submission laid
his tiny head upon the man's ragged shoulder. The man's eyes closed and there
were tears hovering beneath his lashes. His aged hands full of grime, pain and
hard labor, gently, ever so gently cradled the baby's bottom and stroked his
back. No two beings have ever loved so deeply for so short a time.
Nancy stood awestruck. The old man rocked and cradled Erik in his arms for a
moment, and then his eyes opened and set squarely on hers. He said in a firm
commanding voice, "You take care of this baby." Somehow she managed, "I will,"
from a throat that contained a stone.
He pried Erik from his chest unwillingly, longingly, and as though he was in pain. When Nancy received her baby back, and the man said, "God bless you,
ma'am, you've given me my Christmas gift." Nancy said nothing more than a
muttered thanks.
With Erik in her arms, Nancy ran for the car. Tom was wondering why she was
crying, holding Erik so tightly, and kept saying. "My God, my God, forgive me."
Nancy had just witnessed Christ's love shown through the innocence of a tiny
child who saw no sin, who made no judgment, a child who saw a soul, and a mother
who saw a suit of clothes. Even though she was a Christian she was blind and
holding a child who was not. It was like God was asking . . . "Are you willing
to share your son for a moment?" HE shared His Son for an eternity.
-- (one version of an anonymous story passed around on the Internet)
|
