Friday, November 21, 2008

All it took was a simple question..

"Mom, can we stop there one day? "

As I looked out the window on the way to bring the girls to school, I saw where Moe was pointing. She was pointing to the small building on the right, across the street from the post office. Already at 8:30 am, there was a line forming in the cold air. It didn't matter that the temperature was a mere 26 degrees. The people in line was waiting, waiting for the door to open at 9:00 am. The building was painted like no others in the area, with murals on the outside. One was a picture of God, and that was the picture that caught Moe's eye. They weren't standing, waiting to see Twilight. Nor were they waiting to buy the newest, hottest toy on the market. Today, like many other days, they were waiting. Waiting in the cold. Waiting to pick up food for their families.

"Mom, I really want to go there. I want to see God."

And in that moment I knew. We would go there. That day. That morning. After we dropped the older two girls off at school. We ran some errands. And before we headed back home, we stopped at the grocery store. My cupboards were full, there was nothing we needed. But we filled the card. Potatoes. Vegetables. Stuffing. More vegetables. Gravy. We filled the cart to the top. And then we checked out. Today, I didn't pull out my bag of reusable bags. I let the fill our cart with paper and plastic.

And then we drove to our last stop of the morning. We stopped at the small building across from the post office. The one we usually drive by. We pulled in and walked inside. The waiting room was full, two hours after we passed it this morning. We went in and said we had some food and could we get some help bringing it in. And older lady stopped Moe to talk to her. And so, back out to the van, with three volunteers in tow, we filled their arms with the food we had. Back into the small building we went. And then, we silently slipped out the door.

"I didn't see God, but I'm happy we gave them some food".

Such a simple question but it inspired me to act. To do something for those people standing in the cold. It something we could do. Moe and I talked the whole morning. She knows why we brought the food and who it was going to. And now, she knows what that little building on the corner is for. It's the local food bank. It's where people who need it, go and get food. For themselves and their families. And we'll go back. Keep going back. As much as we can.

Thank you Moe.

2 comments:

Suburb Sierra said...

Brings it all into perspective, doesn't it?

Stimey said...

What a great story. Good for both of you!