The Fist Pump

He was lumbering along as he went about his work.
He gets the shopping carts from the parking lot.
He does other odd jobs around the store.
He is a tall man, perhaps my age or a bit older.

He is quiet and rarely looks at people as he works.
One day, I thought I would take a chance.
Hello. How are you? I asked as I went inside the store.
I didn’t expect an answer but it was on my heart to at least try.

When I left the store that day he was collecting carts in the parking lot.
My mini van happened to be next to the space in the parking lots for shopping carts.
As I loaded my things in the back of the car, I looked up and he was standing there.
How are you today? I asked for the second time.

He seemed surprised that someone was talking to him.
He was not used to it.
He had a job to do, but talking to the customers seemed foreign to him.
Do you cook a lot? he asked me.

I do, I said.
I love to cook, wondering why he asked me that particular question.
You get a lot of groceries each week, he said.
I have a large family and when they are all home, I enjoy cooking for them.

Do you cook? I asked since he continued to stand next to my car.
I like to cook, he volunteered.
That’s what I studied in school, he continued.
Really? Though nothing surprised me now.

It was really hotel management, but then I had to leave, his voice trailed off.
I let it trail.
There were some conversations that needed to drift on the air.
There was a line that I did not want to cross with any more questions.

You could go back, I found myself saying.
He looked at me with a questioning gaze.
I could, he said.
I knew it was the first time he thought about that in quite a while.

It’s never too late to learn something new, sounding more like a cheerleader than I intended.
He took my empty cart and added it to the rest.
He began to push the long line of shopping carts back into the store.
Enjoy the rest of your day, I said as I got into my car.

There was a sadness about him.
It looked like life has been hard for him.
I imagined that to many people he is invisible.
He is the shopping cart man but he is so much more.

I see him periodically if I happen to shop at that particular store.
Now he says hello to me.
At Thanksgiving, he asked me if I was going to cook a turkey.
I asked him the same question and he just smiled.

He may be younger than he appears, I finally concluded.
I prayed for him.
It was really hotel management, but then I had to leave.
There is always a crossroad that we come to where our life could go either way.

He is doing something vastly different from what he set out to do.
It’s never too late to learn something new.
It’s never too late.
It’s never too late.

I prayed for him.

I had not seen him for a few weeks.
Then one day, as I was leaving the store, I saw him coming towards me.
He was working inside the store today.
Before I could say hello, he caught me by surprise.

He said hello with a fist pump.
You do not leave someone’s extended hand hanging in the air without shaking it.
Similarly, you do not leave a fist pump unanswered.
I lifted my left hand from the shopping cart and returned his greeting.

It’s never too late to learn something new.
I am not a fist pump kind of girl.
However that day I was.
It was appropriate.

At least this man, who lumbers along while doing his job, knows he is not invisible to me.
He is not invisible to God either.
He is never invisible to God.
That is what will change a life and change a heart: knowing you are seen by the One who sees.

Abraham was promised by God that he would have an heir that would come from his own body.
However, Abraham and his wife, Sarah, were old and beyond child bearing years.
Abraham believed God and it was credited to him as righteousness.
However, when it did not happen in their time frame, they took matters into their own hands.

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian maidservant named Hagar, so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my maidservant; perhaps I can build a family through her…” He slept with Hagar and she conceived. When she knew she was pregnant, she despised her mistress. Then Sarai said to Abram, “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.” “Your servant is in your hands,” Abram said. “Do with her whatever you think best.” Then Sarai mistreated Hagar, so she fled from her. The angel of the Lord found Hagar near a spring in the desert…and he said, “Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?” “I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she answered. The angel of the Lord told her, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her.” The angel added, ” I will increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count…” She gave this name to the angel of the Lord who spoke to her. “You are the God who sees me” for she said, “I have now seen the One who sees me.” (Genesis 16:1-13)

El Roi.
A name of God.
The name that means, the One who sees.
We are never invisible to God.

Other people may pass us by and never notice us.
We may go about our days feeling very insignificant.
We may be frustrated when we seem invisible to everyone.
We are never invisible to God.

Give someone a fist pump.
Remind them that they are seen.
They are seen by the One who always sees.
You matter greatly to God.