Red Balloons

It was another busy day on the London Underground. As the doors of the tube opened, a single mother with a Downs Syndrome child pushed her way in. At the other end of the same carriage another mother with two small boys, each holding red balloons, also managed to get inside.

Despite the mother's best efforts, the child with Downs was screaming and shouting. Nobody moved to offer them a seat. Backs were turned, books and newspapers were raised; everybody kept their heads down.

Then I noticed the other mother speaking to her two boys. Seconds later the two boys, with their red balloons, made their way through the crowded carriage towards the distraught child. When they reached her, somewhat reluctantly, they handed the mother and her child their two balloons.

At that moment, the child stopped crying and struggling in her mother's arms. She took hold of the balloons and a huge smile came to her face. Two red balloons - an unexpected and unsolicited gift - calmed the tormented child.

As the boys rejoined their mother, heads were raised. People began to clap and to thank the boys for their kindness. For a moment there was a real sense of community in that carriage.

It took a simple act of generosity to calm a mother and her child. It took that act to free the rest of us from our inhibitions and fears of becoming involved.

It took the exchange between those two little boys and a tormented child to help us discover for a moment, the true meaning of what it means to be alive and together in community.

Lord, into our loneliness and pain this day, pour Your compassion and Your love. Amen.

Posted for Fr

Go Ahead Take Your Best Shot

Have I Told You Lately That I Love You?

Who Are We Forgetting?

Anglicans

Obeying The Rules

Have you ever watched someone make an illegal turn in the road and wished to yourself that a police officer were nearby to witness it?

There's something of the policeman in most of us. Perhaps it comes from being given so many rules as children — and so many of those little ‘talks’ from parents, teachers, and others about the importance of obeying rules. The fact is, of course, laws and rules can be liberating. They can make life safer and more secure, and they can free us from having to think much about lots of ordinary things. But they can also be spirit-killers.

That was the case in the first generation of Christians, when converts from paganism to Christianity were also required to observe all the religious rules and regulations of orthodox Jews as well. It was a huge burden, under which most of Jesus' contemporaries had been spiritually crushed or had simply given up. And it was so unnecessary, so utterly besides the point of Jesus' teaching, which was to bond to the Lord and to one's neighbours in self-giving love — to love as one wants to be loved.

But old habits die hard, whether they make any sense or not, and it took the Apostles a long time to eventually see the truth. When they did see, they set out to set the people free.

Isn't that what we really want to do for one another — set one another free from the things that don't matter, the things that can't give us life?

Try today to be a liberator rather than a policeman!

.

Christ Jesus, You have set us free in spirit to grow not only as individuals but as one within Your family. May we always dance within the light of Your love, rather than in the darkness of oppression. Because of You, we are truly free! Amen

posted for fr bill

When We Need a Little Help

How to Identify Your Brother

Who Are We Forgetting?

.