The Law of Love

Several years ago, I discovered that one of the men I worked with all my years in the Los Ranchos Presbytery, Bill Saul, had a son who was dying at Hoag Hospital. I went over there and walked into the waiting room outside of intensive care. I didn't have to say a word. Our eyes met, and tears flowed for both of us. We embraced, and I sat down by his side. In that moment of intense personal pain, the very palpable nature of my loss revisited and the reality of his pending loss within a matter of hours, if not minutes, there came an indescribable "peace of God which passes all human understanding, which keeps our hearts and minds through Christ Jesus, our Lord."

My mind flashed back to those weeks leading up to the death of Suzanne and how my dear friend, Leighton Ford, twice, flew across country to be at my side. Almost a decade earlier, he had lost his son, Sandy, a young, virile collegian, to heart disease. And I remembered how he had encouraged me.

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What a privilege to bear one another's burdens.

In the comic strip Peanuts, Lucy asked Charlie Brown, "Why are we here on earth?" He replies, "To make others happy." She ponders this for a moment and then asks, "Then why are the others here?"

This week I read about the message the founder of the Salvation Army sent to their international convention. General William Booth was unable to attend personally because of ill health, so he cabled the delegates a message containing one word: "OTHERS!"

A young, successful executive was traveling down a neighborhood street, going a bit too fast in his new Jaguar. He was watching for kids darting out from between parked cars and slowed down when he thought he saw something. As his car passed, no children appeared. Instead, a brick smashed into the Jag's side door. He slammed on the brakes and backed the Jag back to the spot where the brick had been thrown. The angry driver then jumped out of the car, grabbed the nearest kid and pushed him up against a parked car, shouting "What was that about and who are you? Just what the heck are you doing? That's a new car, and the brick you threw is going to cost a lot of money. Why did you do it?"

The young boy was apologetic. "Please, mister . . . . please, I'm sorry but I didn't know what else to do." He pleaded, "I threw the brick because no one else would stop . . . ."

With tears dripping down his face and off his chin, the youth pointed to a spot just around the parked car. "It's my brother," he said. "He rolled off the curb and fell out of his wheelchair and I can't lift him up."

Now sobbing, the boy asked the stunned executive, "Would you please help me get him back in his wheelchair? He's hurt, and he's too heavy for me."

Moved beyond words, the driver tried to swallow the rapidly swelling lump in his throat. He hurriedly lifted the handicapped boy into the wheelchair, then took out his fancy handkerchief and dabbed at the fresh scrapes and cuts. A quick look told him everything was going to be okay.