Shuffling Along

I saw him in the parking lot.
I was approaching a small stop sign that was placed in the center of the road.
It was a stop sign near the pedestrian crosswalk.
There was a neon sign reminding drivers that stopping for pedestrians is a state law.

Since I was in front of the store, I was going intentionally slow.
The man was walking diagonally.
He was not in the crosswalk.
I stopped anyway.

By the way he was walking, he seemed quite old.
He held some sort of envelope in his hand.
He was oblivious to any cars in the lot, since he was looking down at his feet.
He seemed unaware that anyone was waiting for him to get across.

He shuffled.
His feet barely left the road.
He seemed to make no progress as he inched towards the parked cars.
I couldn’t imagine that this man would be driving.

I wondered if someone was waiting for him.
If they were waiting, they were parked far away.
The parking lot went up on a slight incline.
I actually wondered if he would make it.

I saw other people looking at the man as well.
No one stopped to help him.
My heart was sad because I didn’t think he should have been alone.
If I had already been in a parking space, I would have offered him my help.

There was no where for me to go.
I couldn’t go backwards, since a car was behind me.
I couldn’t go forward because the man was directly in front of me.
I couldn’t go around him because I didn’t want to startle him.

I was here for the duration of his crossing.
Had he fallen, I would have put my car in park and gotten out.
However, with Covid, people react strangely to assistance.
That made my heart said, as well.

I wondered if he was really as old as he looked.
I never saw his face.
However, by his demeanor and the way he shuffled along, he seemed very frail.
It was a cold day and he did not have a very heavy coat on him.

I wish I knew what happened to the man.
When I was finally able to turn down the aisle and park my car, I didn’t see him.
I couldn’t shake the image of him shuffling along.
I couldn’t get it out of my mind.

I remember a Michael Card song called, When A Window Is A Mirror.
It was about a boy named Albert, who went to Michael Card’s church.
Albert walked a shuffling way, as Michael said in his song.
Albert had Down Syndrome.

The song has stayed with me all these years.
Something that Michael experienced helped him to understand his friend, Albert.
Michael was sitting in his chair inside his house as it was getting dark outside.
He could see outside through his windows, but he could also see himself reflected in the glass.

When a window is a mirror,
You see two ways at one time.
You look outside and see the land,
The mountains left to climb.
But also you can see inside
Your face suspended there
Behold your face, and see your place
And understand why you are here.

I thought of that song as I went into the store.
I thought of that song as I drove home.
I thought of that song all through the evening.
Albert and the man in the parking lot were teaching the same lesson.

I don’t know Albert, though I have known and loved a few children with Down Syndrome.
I don’t know the man or the reason he shuffled along.
Albert and the man in the parking lot struggled with something obvious.
Yet we all struggle with something as we shuffle along.

The reason we shuffle is not as obvious.
We may go to great lengths to hide our shuffling.
Only in our vulnerability is there any healing.
As we attempt to camouflage what is not hidden to God, we try to conceal our brokenness.

Some things cannot be hidden.
Some things are right there on the surface for all to see.
There is such beauty in transparency.
It is exhausting to try to hide our imperfections.

As he went along, he saw a man blind from birth.  His disciples asked him, “Rabbi, who sinned, this man or his parents, that he was born blind?”  “Neither this man nor his parents sinned,” said Jesus, “but this happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.  As long as it is day, we must do the works of him who sent me. Night is coming, when no one can work.  While I am in the world, I am the light of the world.” (John 9:1-5)

It was thought, in Jesus’ time, that a baby could sin in utero.
That was the only way the people could explain a handicap.
How wrong the people were.
Jesus set them straight.

This happened so that the works of God might be displayed in him.
The works of God is seen best through our brokenness.
The cracked vessel is able to let the light in.
It is glorious when the Light of the World shines through our life.

I only know Albert through Michael Card’s song.
I don’t know the man in the parking lot, but I feel as if I do.
We all shuffle along in this life.
Life can be hard sometimes.

Hiding our brokenness gets us nowhere.
It is a facade of which we must rid ourselves.
Only then can the Light of Christ shine through the cracks.
Then can others see Him more clearly.

Albert is a friend I know
Who walks a shuffling way
And you must learn to read his face
For he hasn’t much to say.

But he carries ’round inside himself
The knowledge he gives free.
If you look through, not at, his life
A whole new world inside you’ll see.

[Chorus:]
When a window is a mirror,
You see two ways at one time.
You look outside and see the land,
The mountains left to climb.
But also you can see inside
Your face suspended there
Behold your face, and see your place
And understand why you are here.

Each time I gaze upon this boy
There’s something moves inside
I see my own deformities
No longer need to hide

And through his life
I look upon my life a different way
This freedom that he gives for free
Means so much more than I can say

[Chorus]

And Albert offers at no charge
The hope what life can bring
But what he freely gives us all
Has cost him nearly everything…