Sunday and I am driving through my neighborhood observing picturesque yards with thriving lush greenery, shrubbery and multicolored flowers, the labor of each homeowner evident and offered for the viewing pleasure of any and all. Yet the children that live there could be telling chilling stories to their therapists about mental and emotional stress experienced in these very homes when back in April and May parents forced them to hard labor which in turn made for this beautiful yard. My son probably told the same stories years ago. I smile. This does not bother me. Those who make beautiful things happen are simply forgiven.
I am on my way home from church, a place founded on forgiveness. And good stories. Today’s story was about an adulterous woman and her accusers, the Pharisees, who wanted to stone her. She had made bad choices but our Lord forgave her, prevented the authorities from stoning her and told her to go and sin no more. A story all too real that shows among other things, people in authority can become calloused and willing to commit horrendous acts of cruelty.
The recent massacre in Houla Syria comes to mind. About 100 women and children, mostly children were simply killed outright. The Syrian president claims the murderers were terrorists, which may be the beginnings of a civil war, and so he demands greater power. Hitler took the same tack with the “Kristallnacht” (Crystal Night) as an excuse for emergency powers which ultimately led to the death of millions of Jews in the Holocaust. Interesting to note that when one person is attacked it is a story but when a hundred or millions are executed it is just a statistic. Man’s heart is cruel.
Which is all the more reason to enjoy this quiet street and it’s green lawns, toys on a front porch, a cat slinking around some hydrangeas, a bicycle propped against a tree—it’s the miracle of the ordinary. All of societies’ goals are realized here on this street-- security, peace, prosperity, a bed of orange Day Lilies, a child’s chalk writing on a driveway. There are men who would destroy this and men who would protect it.
But here today we are not interested in war or the politics of a corrupt Syrian or past dictators. Good stories all, but sometimes you wish people would get angry about meanness and cruelty.
I think of the man on the interstate highway last week that became enraged when I changed lanes. I thought I had given him plenty of warning with my turn signal and lots of space but apparently he felt I had cut him off. He pulled up beside me, rolled his window down and screamed obscenities. Then, for emphasis, he showed me his finger.
I wish he could show some rage for those massacred children. I like to think that later he felt embarrassed, hoped none of his friends saw him so that when he pulled into his driveway and saw the chalk message “I love Daddy” and saw his house and it’s lush green yard and unharmed children running to meet him, that he felt chastened. I hope that he got out of the car and realized his home was as he left it this morning and took a moment to look at all that was his. Earlier he wanted to stone me, but now with time to reflect I hope his rage is replaced by gratitude.
Good sir and father, thank you for your beautiful yard. Your family is safe and loved. Your public display of rage is forgiven. Now go and scream no more.
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