Seth went grocery shopping with his dad the other day and bought Oreos and Nutty Buddies and all kinds of sugary snacks and then came home and ….. hid them from his sister! I know, shocking! And I get to hear all about it!

She got off the bus today and came in the house to continue the topic that began yesterday. “I was right, he DID hide them from me Mom, he was eating a Nutty Buddy on the bus this morning….he HID them, he hid the snacks from me, why……”. Her voice faded at she searched around the pantry for something to eat.

I watched as she searched and then “heard a prompting”——I thought to myself, “my poor daughter is hungry maybe she would like pancakes”. And so I said;

“You sound hungry. Can I make you pancakes?”

She stopped rummaging and looked around the door frame, “Pancakes? Fluffy ones? With chocolate chips? THANK YOU!!”

I got up off the couch and set to work. No milk? Thank goodness there was a can of evaporated milk in the pantry. Soon I was flipping golden circles and serving them with plenty of butter to a happy daughter sitting in a sunbeam. It was fun!

I thought about Jesus’ words in Matthew:

And I thought about the way we can notice each others’ needs and pains and struggles and how so often I might feel that prompting to “do something”.

Sometimes people are hungry but it’s not for bread. Sometimes people are thirsty, imprisoned, sick, and it’s not what first comes to our minds when we hear those words.

Sometimes an addiction is prison.

Sometimes grief is a sickness worse than Covid.

Sometimes people are thirsty to be noticed.

And people hunger to be known.

To be seen.

As we listen to the promptings to do something, anything, to lift the burden of a child, a friend, a neighbor, and we not only hear them but take action, we realize once again why Jesus tells us to love each other in these tangible ways. Not only does it count as doing something for Him, as if that wasn’t enough reason, in so doing, we also receive benefits. We are likewise lifted up, and our heart inclines…… to joy. And joy, that Divine, real joy, is our strength. (Nehemiah 8:10) Strength for today and tomorrow and all the days to come.

Let me give. Let me see. And let me be thankful for what is given so generously to me, as well.