A Glimpse of God

Completely flat. I did not have time to deal with a flat tire 15 minutes before class although thankfully it went flat in the parking lot and not on the way to class. (The parking lots at MTSU are horrendous, this is the second tire I've lost there.) I called up my wife and informed her of my situation.

After a long day of classes and marching back and forth across campus (the bus routes are useless to me) I began working on my pitiful car in the nearly vacant lot. Maybe people are less compassionate driving by a troubled vehicle on the road than passing them on foot. It may give them more time to think. Or maybe I looked just as pitiful as my car as I crouched on the wet pavement after a rainy afternoon looking for a proper place to raise my car. I was already halfway through, with my wife on the way, and still student after student took time out of their busy day to ask if I needed help, half of them asking even after getting into their cars. Now, I didn't get a rush of people asking me if I needed assistance, but it was a lot more than I thought I would receive from students after a long day of classes who just want to eat supper or even get to work. A few of them I assumed did not even have the proper tools (nor did I, I just had a jack and a tire iron) to assist me and still they offered to lend a hand. This is when I got a glimpse of God, not a view of Yahweh himself, like Moses who got to see God's rear, but a glimpse of that which we all share and contain within ourselves. It was here that I saw, heard, and spoke with God.

We get so preoccupied in our own lives that we forget that others may have, are, or will face the same issues we personally struggle with daily. It is at these moments when our true image shines through our mortal bodies: an image of love and compassion for our fellow man. These students (and probably teachers) didn't expect anything in return for assisting me, and continued to ask if I was sure I did not need any help as I graciously declined (it only took me half an hour to finish). It was a simple giving and pouring of that which we are all capable of, that which we are born with and yearn to share as we get older. When I hear "Do you need help?", I hear more than just concern. I hear the Spirit within, the seedling of Love peeking out from beneath our mortal trappings, calling out to its brothers and sisters. There are no words to describe the awe of experiencing a glimpse of God, and even if there were I could not articulate them in a way for you to feel what I felt. I might just be making a big deal out of nothing, or maybe what we seek and pine for is all around us if we just take a minute to look.