Hot Food For 12 People

It is always wonderful for families to get together. A few years ago, we were all gathered together at my mom's home in Arizona. We decided it was a better idea to go bring food home from everyone's favorite Mexican food restaurant than to go there to eat. Then all the kiddos wouldn't get squirmy.

Mom, Susi, and I drove into town to pick up the take out for all 12 of us. To get to my mom's house you had to cross the Verde River over a 1 lane bridge. So off we went and picked up the scrumptious Mexican food we all loved.

We got stopped in an unheard of line of traffic just before the bridge. A police officer came up to the window, and Mom asked what was going on. He informed us there was a "shooter" on the bridge. Mom listened as the officer explained they were negotiating with the gunman. Finally, she interrupted, "How long is it going to be? I have hot food for 12 people in the car and need to get home."

That officer just looked at my mom. No comment, just stood their in the window of her car and looked at her. Finally, he informed her that he had NO IDEA how long it was going to be. Sorry your food might get cold. There is a shooter on the bridge.

Mom was mortified! Of course she knew he didn't know how long it was going to be. Boy, was she embarrassed.

Now her kind daughter is retelling this story years later. Although it still makes us laugh, there is a lesson here too.

Each of us gets too busy with our lives and so focused on ourselves. We don't take a moment to think what others may be going through. We just worry about how it may inconvenience us. What must that person on the bridge have been going through to become so desperate as to take a gun onto a bridge?

It is time we slow down, look around, and see who can use our compassion.

We made it home a couple hours later. Food was great even though it was cold. The shooter was taken unharmed. Our family had a great story to tease my sweet mom with for years to come.

In Him,
Joyful
1-27-2010
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