I didn't understand the lack of concern for her deadness from all of the people all around her. Every single one of them seemed more focused on their "issues"... their irritants... their schedules... and the weather than whether she was alive or not. And sadly, if I admitted it and were completely honest, I'd gotten used to it too... my eyes failed to see "dead" so easily as they should. I'd been around it too much and too long. I'd grown accustomed to it. It was common. It didn't really bother me much.
But.
My failure to care was starting to bother me. It was easier not to care... but that ease didn't make it right to.
She was really cute though... for a dead person. She didn't know that she was dead when I met her... and I wasn't sure how to go about telling her that she was dead. How do you convince a person that doesn't know? Or... maybe something somewhere somehow deep inside was already telling her? Yeah.... thinking about it, I'm sure that it was/is. It's in our make-up to. It's how we're made. We don't know. But then again, something else inside seriously knows that "deadness" isn't right... and it knows that real "life" is missing!
And even then.... the conversation that I did have with the "dead" girl... was about the item she was purchasing, how hot it was outside, and her plans for the upcoming weekend. I liked her! She had loads of personality! But ouch, her language was painful! We're told that "you will know them by their fruit"... let's just say, her "fruit" was showing and you didn't have to play the guessing game and wonder. It was easily "known" from what she said and how she chose to say it.
I finished my purchase, turned and left, then it dawned on me...
Ugh! I blew it! I let an opportunity to give Life pass me by.... pass her by..... because I was busy, I didn't think about it, I was distracted with buying my own item, and in total (horrible) truthfulness, it never even crossed my mind to.
Father, forgive me for my blindness... and forgive me for my heart that's obviously too cold to care for the perishing.
"The fields are ready to harvest, but the workers are few"... perhaps it's because the "workers" are too self-absorbed without even meaning to be?
Oh wow... like I said, she was really cute (even being dead)... but woe, Lord, why didn't I care more than I did?
I love what we read that Andrew did when he found the Savior, "The first thing Andrew did was to find his brother Simon and tell him, "We have found the Messiah!"" And us? How about us? Me? You? What do we do? How quick or apt are we to run to tell another?
You know, how could we really? We go about our busyness. We get our fast foods. We order our Starbucks. We read our books. We watch our shows. We go out to eat. We go to ballgames. We wonder what we'll wear to that event coming up. We doo our hair. We bleach our teeth. We paint our faces. We have our nails done. And as I said earlier, we dare to TALK ABOUT THE WEATHER!!!..... When all around us people are walking around.... "dead" people.... not even realizing they're dead..... and we go on with our living. We're too consumed in oblivion to care to take much notice. OR, maybe, just maybe, we'll decide to pray for them... when never saying a word to them while given the perfect opportunity!?!
"But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak." - Matthew 12:36.
Was this one of those times that God was talking about when He said such?
Hmmm... it's only after the embalming that it's too late to do anything else but to bury her. BUT... while she's still walking and talking?....... what do you say to the "dead" person when you're given the moment and they're standing right next to ya? Could it be that God specifically placed and put them there for that second in front of you on purpose? So that you'd do something? Say something? Make mention of Him to them? What would Jesus do if He were you and He were there when He saw her? (He's inside you, you know? He still wants to work!)
Do we even see them.. or truly even care that they're dead? Why such true lack of concern from all of us that are living? How subtly the enemy wins keeping God's people so complacently distracted.
Lord, open our eyes to see! Give us super-natural hearts to LOVE them!... because Love doesn't "not do"... Love has to do something!
She was dead. And I didn't even offer her breath, I didn't even attempt to resuscitate her, I didn't share with her the news of the Life that I've been given that breathes and gives Life eternal. It wasn't too late in my moment.... but sadly now, I'll probably never see her again...........
Oh Lord, where I failed You... and her! Oh Lord, send someone else!... Someone that sees! Someone that loves! Someone that cares! Someone that shares!.... And help me next time, to be that "someone else" that I now wish I was.
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