A little boy was riding across town on a city bus. He was huddled close to a very well dressed lady and was swinging his legs back and forth out in the aisle like kids will do. Accidentally, he rubbed his shoes up against the woman sitting across from him. She got perturbed and said to the woman beside the boy, “Pardon me, but would you please tell your son to keep his feet to himself!” The well-dressed woman looked at the boy as if she hadn’t really been aware that he was there, then, sliding away from him said, “He’s not my boy. I’ve never seen him before.

Embarrassed, the lad moved to another seat where he sank down as if trying to hide. It was obvious that he was trying to fight back the tears. He looked at the lady whose dress he had gotten dirty and said, “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to.”

When the woman saw what the reprimand had done to the boy, she felt badly about how she had responded. “That’s all right,” she said, “Are you going somewhere alone?”

The boy lowered his head and answered. “I always travel alone. My mommy and daddy are gone, so I live with my Aunt Maggie. But when she gets tired of me, she sends me to Aunt Elizabeth.”

“Are you on your way to visit Aunt Elizabeth now?”

“Yes,” the boy answered. “But Aunt Elizabeth is hardly ever home. I hope she’s home today, though. It sure is cold.”

The woman looked at the boy again and then said, “You sure are young to be riding on the bus alone.”

“Oh, It’s okay,” the boy quipped. “I never get lost—but sometimes I get awfully lonesome. So, when I see someone I’d like to belong to, I sit real close to them and pretend they’re my family. That’s what I was doing when I got your dress dirty. I forgot about my feet.”

Hearing this, the woman moved over to where the boy was sitting and put her arm around him and hugged him real close.

It’s nice to revel in the warm, fuzzy feeling of being loved by God and by others. But that’s only one-half of the warmth and joy to be found in love. The other one-half comes in the sharing of our love with another. To share Christ-like love with another is to sit with the stranger on the bus, to engage in conversation and consolation, to stand with the one who is hurting, to put your arm around one whom you may just have met a moment before, and to burden yourself with the burdens they carry.

It’s our holy task, our daily ministry, and an expression of our solid hope. SHARE your joy, your compassion, and your hope, which you are given in faith. Live your life as if you are at a banquet, not a funeral. SMILE! and share your hope with another.

Baptized, like you, for This,