For Wilshire Baptist Church
“Do you need some help?”
Our neighbor Carlos walked across the street to check on me, no doubt after seeing and hearing me start, stop and restart my mower several times. I was under the shade of the trees, troubleshooting a breakdown in the mower’s self-propulsion drive system, and when he came over and asked the question, I had the front wheels off, the front end up on a flowerpot, and I was looking underneath at the belt that turns the wheels.
From Carlos’ perspective across the street, it probably looked and sounded like a major breakdown, so I told him what I was doing and assured him I was OK. Still, he offered me the use of his large riding tractor mower if I ever got tired of mowing with my walk-behind machine. I thanked him, but looking across the street at his big red monster, I knew I never would take him up on it. My yard is bigger than his but I still don’t think it requires a riding mower. And secondary to that, I’d have to get a lesson on operating the beast, and I’m afraid I’d destroy the yard and damage his machine in the process.
He started to walk away but before he did, I asked him about his father-in-law, Orlando, a Cuban immigrant I’ve written about before who on a few occasions has brought me strong Cuban coffee and one day a couple of years ago told me in broken English about his bout with lymphoma. We haven’t seen Orlando in weeks, and Carlos confirmed what we suspected: the cancer has returned. Carlos said the doctors won’t operate again, and Orlando is in the house struggling with an injection treatment that nauseates him and saps his strength. I told Carlos I understand — we’ve been through that in our family — and I asked him to tell Orlando that he is in our prayers.
After Carlos left, I carefully removed the pins and clips required to pull the drive belt from the mower. (I’m no mechanic, but I love puzzles, and this type of minor fix-it falls into that category.) The belt looked cracked and worn, and the real mechanic a few blocks away at the lawn mower shop confirmed that it needed to be replaced. He didn’t have one in stock for my older model mower so he placed an order and I’ll have it in a few days. It shouldn’t take but 15 minutes to put the new belt on.
Oh how I wish we could repair the human body that easily. We’ve come so far; medical science has achieved “miracles” in our lifetime. And yet there still is so much we can’t fix and even more that we still don’t understand. It’s a reminder that as amazing as our machines are, nothing we have created will ever compare to the miracle and complexity of the human body. We’ll never match the imagination of our creator God no matter how hard we try.
But thanks to the equally complex and ingenious human spirit we’ve been given, we keep trying. And we come closest to matching God’s caring and grace when we cross the street and ask, “Do you need some help?”