One of Jack’s coworkers recently brought me three rulers that had gotten left behind on his bench, and the sight of those three rulers has me thinking.
My first thought is Andy Rooney’s comment that he found it easier to go out and buy a new screwdriver than to find the other three he had somewhere in his shop.
My next, closer to home, is that Jack also bought duplicates of tools, but they weren’t usually to replace ones he couldn’t find. Usually he was looking for help to be more precise. Two of the three rulers his friend delivered were the same in length, but one had a square edge while the other had a rounded edge. Each fit a specific need, which distinction I’m sure all you carpenters out there can appreciate. The last ruler, though shorter and smaller, was still clearly an important part of the whole.
It occurs to me each of you are like those rulers — or “straight edges”, as Jack would say. You all help, and you each do something specific that not everyone else can do.
This is good. Do whatever it is you do as well as you can do it.
If you make soup, make it well, give it out, and rest in the knowledge that you fed someone body and soul with that hot soup. Maybe you shovel a sidewalk, or buy groceries, or run an errand, or make a bed, or clean the house, or leave quick “no need to call back, just thinking about you” voice mails.
You might leave a twinkly Christmas welcome in the home of a hurting family facing a painful Christmas. Maybe you prune flowerbeds or bring music or demystify finances or oversee car repairs. Maybe you pray on the phone in the middle of the night, or text hope in the middle of the night, or come over in the middle of the night (because honestly, the middle of the night can be so daunting). Maybe you call with invitations to be part of your family gatherings, and then you call again later just to gently follow up because you realize the grieving person’s brain needs a little help in tracking life and being aware of options.
Whatever it is you do, go ahead and do it. It’s true you can’t do everything. You don’t need to. One bowl of soup nourishes. One card in the mail cheers.
Like the story of the boy who flung stranded starfish one by one back to life in the ocean, you make a difference by your single, specific care.
“I’m a little pencil in the hand of a writing God, who is sending a love letter to the world.”
– Mother Teresa