An elderly neighbour of mine had a thing about his feet. It was of no interest or concern to anyone else,
but he was almost obsessive about
keeping his feet clean. Perhaps it was a
side effect of having worn army boots for many years. Apart from washing his feet every day – I’ve
never seen such pink plump feet on anyone other than a baby – he was paranoiac
about fresh socks, to the extent that he wouldn’t wash his socks alongside anything
else: they had to go in the washing machine by themselves.
So it came as no surprise
really, to find when he died, that he had 25 pairs of brand new socks
that were still in their packets, plus another 18 pairs that were as good as
new.
It seemed such a waste to throw them away. Luckily the Salvation Army soup kitchen in
Bournemouth was only too grateful to have them, as every night they would have
homeless and poor people turn up without socks or other basic clothing. On occasion, the organisers had removed their
own socks and given them out. Now 43 of the local homeless benefitted
unexpectedly from the passion of one stranger.
If something as trivial and personal as a hygiene obsession
can have such unexpected effects, what about our everyday words and
actions? Our thoughts and
intentions? Often we don’t see the
impact that these create, whether it’s holding a door open for a young woman
struggling with a pushchair; or being rude to a traffic warden. Our smallest action sends ripples out into the
world, for better or worse. No wonder it
is said that God sees even a sparrow fall.
To me, that means no action goes unnoticed, each carries its own energy
out into the world at large. Love, like
God, is not blind but all-seeing. We may
be blind to what we do but love is not: Love sees the ripples before the stone
is cast.
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