40 Words for 40 Days: Day 27

Hello Beloveds!

    I have a handful of unexpected minutes, want to share them with me?

I searched my list, for this 14th day, and discovered that I’d written the word KIND twice. So in this little window of time, let’s unpack these twins...KIND KIND! KIND squared? KIND in double portion?KIND, then more KINDness to spare?

    If I search back to my first memory of unexpected KINDness, I am only three years old. I’m standing in the elevator of Bullocks Department Store, in Pasadena, CA, watching in terror as the doors snap shut! My gentle grandmother’s worried face disappears from the foyer and up, up the elevator ascends! I am alone; I’m sobbing into my hands and crying out, “Grandma, Grandma!” The doors open to a different floor. A towering man in a suit looks down at me. Silently, he scoops me up and brings me to the sweeping staircase where he carries me down to the ground floor. There my grandmother is waiting with open arms.

    All these years I’ve wondered how he knew where I belonged, but just now, as I searched my heart for a KIND story I realized—he was KIND KIND. The first half of the story must be this. He’d seen me disappear! He must’ve told my grandmother not to worry because he’d find me when the doors opened. He’d said this comfortingly, as he sprinted up the stairs to find me!

    Perhaps double KINDness is the KIND act we do, plus all the hidden details that no one sees or knows, of preparation or sacrifice, that carves out space for KINDness to express itself. KINDness is a gentle, humble form of love that is often more layered than it appears. I think we need KINDness in double portion more now than ever! Want to pray with me about it?

    “Dear Lord, Thank you for mirroring KINDness is every act of healing, listening, serving, meeting, providing, encouraging, shepherding, forgiving, sacrificing and dying, expressed in your Word. Will you please teach and strengthen us to answer meanness, aggressiveness, pain, anger, fear, shame, disdain, ridicule, disrespect and hatred with KIND KINDness, that only unconditional love can inspire. There is nothing easy in this, but since all things are possible in you—please do this impossible work of grace in our hearts.

Amen.”

    If you happen to see an elevator today, ascending from the ground floor, then returning, with doors opening wide, like my grandmother’s arms, perhaps you’ll remember this story of KINDness?

Happy Sunday! See you tomorrow!