Kind Gestures From Simple Souls (August 27, 2006)

My son Peter works as a mentor for retarded kids at his school. (It is only partly a humanitarian gesture - he also does it to get out of gym.)

He told me yesterday that when he met the young black Down Syndrome girl that he would be working with, she looked at him and said, "You're sweaty." It was not an insult, just a statement of fact. He explained that he had had to run through the halls to get to class on time. She paused for a second, and then began furiously waving her hands in front of his face in order to create a fan to cool him down.

What a sweet act of grace on the part of this simple girl! Perceiving the discomfort of a boy she had just met, she waved him a sign language that said, "Let me make it better for you." In words my mother loved to quote from Mark 14:8, "She did what she could."

When my niece Rachel was two (yes, just two), she saw my mother weeping over the loss of her husband. Rachel ran to the couch where my mom lay and beat her tiny fists against the cushions, shouting, "Don't cry Nana! DON'T CRY!" Nana laughed through her tears, and enjoyed a moment's comic relief from sorrow. Just a year or so later, by which time Rachel understood that people weep when loved ones die, she went with her parents to the funeral of a man who had suddenly passed away. In the car she asked concerning the widow, "Did Judy cry?" "Yes," my sister answered, "Judy cried." When they got to the funeral parlor Rachel walked up to the woman, pulled a jelly bean out of her pocket and said, "Have a jelly bean, Judy." She did what she could.

Do what you can. It is a lesson I preach at myself when hitting walls of discouragement over problems I cannot solve, griefs I cannot alleviate, sicknesses I cannot cure, sinners I cannot set straight. "What's the use?" the devil whispers to me. "You can't fix this."

No, I probably can't - but that does not mean there won't be an opportunity somewhere to offer a "jelly bean” of grace. Thank God for simple souls and children who do what they can, heedless of the limits to what they can accomplish. When Mary of Bethany anointed Jesus with expensive perfume, it was, strictly speaking, a wasted effort. What exactly did it accomplish? I don’t know! I guess Jesus smelled really nice for a while. But that wasn't the point. Jesus said, "She did what she could," and "wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her" (Mark 14:9).

Do what you can, and though your deeds will not be recounted in an inspired Gospel or an uninspired Pastor’s Page, God will remember them. God delights to remember every cup of cold water that kindness ever poured.