There’s a lot of love in the air right now.

It’s easy to see, if you look.

They  were a couple.  Standing in the cold, shivering,  ringing a bell next to a kettle.   Smiling.    Asking for a few coins for the red bucket.  Money to help make another person’s life just a bit easier this winter.

It’s love.

Down at the food pantry, he volunteers every week.  Making sure some people have enough food to eat, if nothing else.

I walked into the building to deliver a package.  The man stood up.  Introduced himself.

We played the “who do you know and who do I know” game we do here in Mississippi.  And, when that didn’t work, I asked “How in the world did you end up down here?”  We talked for a half hour.

“I retired.  Thirty years and a pension.  But, then, suddenly,  I had too much time on my hands.  I needed to do something, I wanted to give some of it back.  A friend told me I ought to volunteer.  There’s always a need, he said.  I’ve been coming down here for twenty years now.”

Spreading Love.

She goes to the hospital every day.  Has been volunteering for nearly twenty years.

I was at the hospital.  My wife was in the operating room.  This stranger  walked into the room.  The two of us talked for another half hour. She had a name tag, said she started in 1999.   She’s always been a worker.  Where she worked closed down.  Then she lost her husband.  Broke her heart.   Empty house.  Kids are grown  and gone.  Television soap operas bored her.

“I had to get out of that house.  I didn’t want to shrivel up and die.” she told me.

“I knew a woman who volunteered at the hospital.  She said “Get out.  Go volunteer somewhere. Give it back!”

I’ve been down here, trying to help every day since.  I talk with people like you every day.  I have the best job in the whole world and I do it for free.”

More Love.

A week earlier, we bowed our heads and prayed as a group.

Our preacher was having heart surgery.  His second time.  Serious. Scary.  A really good guy.  All the time I’ve known him, he’s been busy, praying for others,  giving away his time and pieces of his heart.  He’s shared a lot of love around town.

Suddenly, he’s down the hall.  The doctor said it’s going to be like running a marathon to get him well again.  Long and hard.

While the doctors were busy doing doctor things, a steady stream of church members were just as busy praying, wishing and hoping for the best.  We stood there in a circle,.  We held hands and asked for help. We asked God to do the heavy work.

More love than you can shake a stick at.

There was something else in that room as we stood there, holding hands in a circle, our heads bowed, eyes closed and praying.  Something else!

Let me tell you,  there’s a lot of love going around.  Sometimes you have to look for it and then there’s the times when it walks right up  reaches out and grabs hold of you.

It’s in the air!

 

Please feel free to share.  I encourage and welcome your comments and thoughts.  Contact Mike Windham at amwindham100@gmail.com.  Please follow my blog at mikewindham.com.