I was sitting on this bench the other day in the Tiergarten when I saw something amazing. An eternalized moment:
Suddenly there were a hundred sermons that came to mind. Dad? Nelson? Nate?A lady was walking briskly along the path, holding the end of a slack clothesline-type rope, about 10 feet long, in her left hand at her side.
Approximately 7 feet behind her, a blind lady, with her white walking stick in her right hand, was holding the other end of the rope in her left hand, following the first lady just as briskly.
As they passed, I watched with amazement at how the slightest zig or zag of the blind lady was immediately righted by her sensitivity to the slack rope.
i'm reminded of my trip to Israel/Palestine a few years ago. i met two young women out in the Negev desert who were goat and sheep shepherds. they were probably about 13yrs old, which is typical for beduin shepherds. through a translator, i talked to them about their lives and about the animals. i wondered how the one girl kept her animals separate from the other's, since they all seemed to be mingled together. the girls told me that the sheep know the voice of their own shepherd well enough so that, when one of them calls out, they come walking. each sheep walks toward its own shepherd, thus seperating them.
ReplyDeleteare we listening carefully enough to our Shepherd's voice to distinguish it from others'? are we holding that rope gently--carefully--enough to notice the slightest turn?
:) there's your sermon.
Ahhhhh! Thanks, Nate, for rising to the occasion. Somehow I knew you would! I love these stories, which Dad/G'pa himself would have loved to tell. I see a big smile on his face.
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