Reflection / Sally Meyer

God meets us in everyday living: The lady in the grocery store

As I watched two people in front of me move through the checkout line, I didn’t notice anything unusual about the cashier. She was elderly with white hair, and had clear, blue eyes. When I got to the front of the line, she looked me square in the eye and gently asked, “Do you have everything you need?” It was as if she really wanted to know the answer.

Her question touched me. Cashiers don’t normally ask that. Usually the phrase is something like, “Did you find everything?” It didn’t take long for me to answer. I looked directly back at her and said, “Yes, I do have everything I need.”

God finds a way to find me. And that day, he met me through the woman in the checkout line.

What was it that stopped me in my tracks? What was it that made me feel like there was an urgency to her question?

As I reflect back, it was eye contact. Her question meant something important because she looked at me.

Then there was her voice. There was a calmness and care in it, seeming to reach right out to me—as if I were important. I couldn’t help but think that this is how Jesus would look at me and speak to me if he were right here with me. It was in that precise moment, where the gentleness of voice, and the look of compassion, made me fully aware of God’s presence.

Questions continued to surface after that encounter. What does it mean for me to be grateful? Am I being grateful?

Thanking God for all I have been given and acknowledging all the goodness in my life is important and something that is not to be taken lightly.

But I can’t help but think I am being called to reflect more deeply on the cashier’s question. God’s love and care for me were affirmed in her words. How am I being called to use my own thankfulness to love others with more gentleness and compassion?

As I think about the most challenging times in my life, it is sometimes hard to imagine that God was there in all of it.

Feeling grateful is difficult in hard situations. It’s easier to become angry, resentful or depressed about what I do or don’t have.

But God reaches out to us and meets us in all of our situations, messy or not. He is in the middle of all of it. We are not alone. The cashier behind the counter reminded me of that.

What are you thankful for? Who are you thankful for? Do you have everything you need?
 

(Sally Meyer is a member of St. Mark the Evangelist Parish in Indianapolis.) †