“Isn’t he adorable?!” Christina asks me.
A retired pastor, he can talk to literally anyone and he still does, on a daily basis at the age of 80+.
“I’m going to get some ice cream at Walmart,” he’ll inform his wife, Aunt Miriam in the morning before disappearing.
Did he get lost? He’s been gone for three hours.
No, no. He didn’t get lost. He’s still at Walmart.
Still at Walmart?
Yes and he does this on a daily basis, so much so that we shouldn’t be alarmed …
Alarmed at what?
Well, that he’s still at Walmart, where he is lovingly known as the Mentos man. He knows each person that works there by name and every day, he goes around offering them a Mentos, asking them how they’re doing, how so-and so’s surgery went, and figuring out how to brighten their day with his jokes, a smile and the love of Jesus.
Honestly, I don’t quite know how this works, because I’m half his age and there are days when I wake up and I am crabby, grumpy, and lacking in all fruits of the Spirit including niceness (if that counts). But, then today, I met Uncle Raphael whom I’m sure is frail, human, broken and has his stinky days because of the Fall, just like me, but he seems to carry around joy wherever he goes…
As I was reflecting on this, I felt God whisper, “This is what it looks like to know the heart of Jesus… You know, in the deep way, where my love heals and changes, makes you whole enough that it can’t help but overflow out of you into a broken world that is so desperately to see and experience glimpses of me…” This is what it looks like to embody the love of Christ to the world.
I pray more than anything that now, during my thirties, that I find Jesus or more importantly that Jesus continues to find me and I let Him love me until my life truly reflects a life transformed by the gospel. So, that when I am old and gray and retired from teaching, I will know Him in such a way that God blesses me with a quirky place, like Uncle Raphael was given Walmart, where I can continue to love people with contagious joy…
I can attest to everything both Esthers said..... I fondly remember many trips to Orchard Supply....3 to 4 hour trips and usually coming away having bought nothing, but, invariably, several people just shopping or browsing were touched by Raphael's openness, wit, and love of God.
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