Perhaps God’s love is like this

Yesterday we were eating lunch in the dining room of the Hotel Lakeside.  We’d ordered our food and were waiting while conversing with our friends Rob and Lynn.  Then I heard a crash.  At the next table there was a mother and her two young daughters, perhaps 7 and 5.  Somehow, the older girl had knocked her plate to the floor, and it shattered with glass and food all scrambled.  I was very surprised because the floor was carpet over wood.  But there it was and everyone turned to look.  The little girl got down and started to clean it up.  I was horrified.  I expected to see blood any moment.  “Oh don’t do that,” I said out loud because her mother seemed immobile and couldn’t see what I saw.  Then the mom got up and started to clean it up, as slowly some staff appeared.  Finally, she sat down and a bus boy with a tray picked up the food and shards of glass.  After he left and everyone in the dining room returned to the soup and salads, the little girl’s frozen face crumbled, and she got down and ran to her mother’s lap where she sobbed and sobbed.  Mom didn’t say a word—just held and rocked her.

The dish was still broken; the food was still ruined; and yes, people had stared at her and she was still embarrassed to have been the “big girl” in the restaurant who had spilled her food.  But Mom held her.  It’s a reminder to me of how God’s love works. He can’t always undo what we did, but he can hold us close until the hurt and embarrassment goes away.