Bring me just butter, please!

Did you know that God is the same whether we’re at church or not!?

In the market!

I like it when my wife sends me off on an errand to buy useless things like butter (or something else... I’m not especially obsessed by  *butter*, I’m just giving an example...)

Despite the impression I have of wandering about in a forest full of all that’s superficial, with fluorescent orange mini price tags instead of leaves, and adverts everywhere, trying to get us to believe we need all this meaningless stuff to fill up our lives, I like it, because you meet people (and *butter*!)

I was hesitating between cheap bread that looked hard to swallow and good bread where it was the price that was hard to swallow (Oh boy, my life really is too complicated!). When suddenly: WHAM! A lady greets me from the back.

It was the mom of one of my little Benjamin’s friends.

And we’re all set for the small talk:

- “How are you? What lovely weather we’re having.etc...”

Right in the midst of our superficial (yes, that as well) and extremely animated chatter, punctuated by piercing bursts of laughter, BOOM! the Lord’s sweet voice (yes, Him again!) made me sit up and take notice of a joke she’d just casually come out with:

- “Ha! ha! ha! in any case, all the men in my life always finish by dumping me sooner or later, hi! hi! hi!”

(We’re not talking about a a trash disposal unit - dumping me has a different meaning in this case)

I was seized by a tremendous compassion for her and I looked straight into her heart.

- “What did you just say?”

She pulled up sharp and in the middle of the store she started to cry. And that’s how I was able to talk to her about Jesus’ unconditional love for her...

In the street!

In the street, I met a guy with a limp, I knew that he’d had a tough life (alcohol, prison, comics). We chatted about everything and nothing at all when, out of the blue, BANG! I asked him:

- “Would you like me to pray for your knee?”

(argh! What’s got hold of me today!? I’ve forgotten I’m not in church any more!). Surprised, he stammered:

-  “Eh? What?! Umm... if you want”

And there, standing on the sidewalk, I prayed out loud for him... not on my knees shouting with all my force towards Jerusalem, just a simple prayer, keeping my eyes open so as not to embarrass him in front of any passers-by... Something shifted in his soul, he was really touched (who cares about the knee anyway!)

It’s what I see in him whenever I come across him now...

At home!

The biscuits were already hot, just out of the oven, but…

without butter!