I took the roundabout way to the coffee shop this morning. I have a lot of work to do so I fully intended to get there A-SAP, but for some reason I ended up making a few different turns. At any rate, I found myself stopped in front of one of my favorite dichotomies: the local private catholic college preparatory and Central High (the most ethnically diverse, police-patrolled school in town). The two schools sit right next door to each other. As I passed the preppy Catholic school, the turning lane was full with Suburbans, Lexuses, and other shiny, window-tinted autos. Just on the other side, the sidewalks were lined with "the other" kids. The turning lane into the public high was empty, though I spotted a Chevy Cavalier dropping off a student in the parking lot.
A young girl got out and a guy about her same age helped her with her backpack. I thought, "What nice friends. They must carpool." But as she turned to walk towards class, he grabbed her hand. She coyly smiled and let him draw her in. He held her. She buried her face in his chest. She turned again to go, but he held onto her hand making her giggle. For the length of the red light, they embraced each other--obviously dreading their parting. Which is when it occurred to me that he didn't attend school. Dressed in basketball shorts and a t-shirt, he didn't appear to be going to work either. When she finally left his arms and headed for class, he hopped into the passenger seat of the Chevy. Apparently, someone was taking him to drop her off.
As the Chevy drove away I realized how desperate they both were for love. Desperate. Watching the way he seemed to care for her, touch her, hold her, want her near him, I suddenly felt rage for her parents*. I was disturbed that it was a boyfriend who gave her so much attention. It was a boyfriend who figured out a way to get her to school. I wondered what this boyfriend did with his time and if he was someone worth her love. It didn't matter, though. He was the only one there working for it.
[*Side note: in ancient Hebrew there is no word for parents. It's either mother or father. So when I say parents, I am merely being politically correct. For I really mean to say father.]
2 comments:
ahhh!!! i feel you! seriously, love REALLY makes the world go 'round! we all crave it. we would all die for it. we all suffer to experience it. we all yearn for touch and sight and sound and smell that will invoke the FEELING of love in us! and we ALL fail in loving and in being loved. i guess that is because God, being the imbodiment (did i spell that right?) of love is the only one who can truly express and harness the POWER of love. when we look for love anywhere else, we are misled. that's why those damn boys cant really LOVE us unless they love him first! :)
Amen. But do they even know He is there? That they need Him? That they can love Him and what's more, be loved BY Him?
Satan has been smart. He keeps them working, watching tv, fighting, voting. But never, never knowing they are loved.
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