A few months ago I was contacted through Facebook by a friend I had not seen since grade 7. Richard asked if I would join him for dinner to reminisce about school days and life. I changed schools after grade 7 so did not see him in grade 8, nor did we attend the same high schools. We got together and had a blast remembering the past and catching up on what became of old friends. I have to admit that I was becoming a bit cynical trying to figure out why he contacted me after 30 plus years. Perhaps he needed a job or money. I finally said, “I am having a great time but I have to ask what made you contact me after all this time?” Richard told that he was dying of pancreatic cancer and that he had only a few months to live, and that he wanted to reconnect with people who made a tremendous difference in his life. I then asked him, “Why me?” I stated that, “We hardly knew each other and spent no time after school together.”
Richard reminded me. He told me that the bully was picking on him, (as he did since grade 4) and that I told him to layoff. The bully said, “Make me!” So, I did. He told me that the bully never bugged him again, and in grade 9 and 10, actually protected him. He told me that after grade 11 that bully became a lifelong friend and that he ended up marrying that bully’s sister. They have 3 wonderful kids and 8 grandkids. It occurred to me at that moment, that while we are doing some of the most important things in life, we are not even aware that we are doing it.
We affect people’s lives every day in profound ways without understanding our importance in this world. People sometimes ask us what our purpose is and we answer, “I am not really sure!” Yet we have had many purposes in the lives of our friends, family, co-workers, business partners and tenants. At the funeral, I finally realized that the little things we do come back to us as a harvest. I was so grateful to know that I made a difference in his life. Even in my faith, all miracles started with something little. Miracles started with a little wine, a few fishes & loaves, a bit of mud, a little oil in the lamp, and little stone in a slingshot…etc. Let’s do more of those little things because the harvest makes you feel young like when the world was new.