KINDNESS
Psalm 89:2: “I will declare that Your
love stands firm forever, that you established Your faithfulness in Heaven
itself.”
Jewish
tradition has a well-known mantra that goes like this: “I will declare—the
world was built on kindness.” The story tells
that when God created the world, it was teetering like a chair on three
legs. So God added a fourth leg. A kindness leg.
Kids
take pride in learning to dress and tie shoe laces. It never dawns on us that we had been totally
dependent on others’ kindness until then.
We even needed help to be born!
Someone had to feed, change our diapers, wash, and protect us from
harm. Kindness got us to dressing ourselves
independently.
From
that point, we depended on kind acts of teaching and guiding until we grew up. We liked that independence. We never gave kindness another thought. We can do for ourselves! When we earn our livelihood, showing off nice
clothes, driving hot cars and living in fine houses, we become proud.
Fast-forward
fifty years.
Kids
are grown. Employers demand we
retire. Bodies misbehave.
Uh
oh.
Time
to swallow one’s pride.
Why
can’t the children visit more often with my grandkids? Will my retirement fund last the rest of my
life? After all my surgeries, how will I
keep going? How can I afford my
meds? Once again, we’re suddenly dependent—on
other’s kindness.
That’s
life. We’re all enrolled in its
school. And it doesn’t play
favorites. Everybody lives through
challenging times. Everybody needs help
from people around them. Everybody needs
acts of kindness to get us to the finish line.
Sometimes a smile is all the encouragement we need to keep going.
In
the end, the dates of one’s birth and death is shown as birth-death. The hyphen separating the dates is one’s
life. We’d like to believe: birth-independence-
death. But the truth is: birth-kindness-death. All our worlds would fall if God hadn’t added
the fourth leg of kindness.
Because
the world is built on kindness, people have kindness built into our DNA. We can’t survive without the love and support
from others around us.
Take Home Nugget
God hates independence because it makes
His kids proud. He never left our side in
sixty +years of living. He always
watched over us and heard our prayers.
We were ALWAYS dependent on His kindness. May we spread kindness. That begins the ripple effect that stabilizes
the world on the kindness leg.
What a pleasant surprise when someone is
kind
When I smack myself against a wall!
Why should she mind
When I’m not standing tall?
People get themselves in a bind
Where lives don't roll like a ball.
And another’s kindness is a precious
find
That prevents our sure fall!
Adapted
from Holy Land Moments Daily
Devotions. Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein. Devotion@Holylandmoments.org.
September 13, 2015.
Devoted
to my friend in Christ, Bonita Cox.
J.D. Griffith
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