Doing A Heidi

 

Yesterday, as I was driving home from a worship leadership practicum in VA, 

I was thinking about heaven and hell, individualism versus community, 

good versus evil, 

fear versus freedom, 

certainty versus doubt,

openness versus judgment,

and the general meaning of life, 

when I got a text from Heidi the Librarian.

She was ecstatic!

 

A couple of months ago, at the countywide Young Authors celebration, a little girl showed up dressed in a coat of many colors. 

The little girl had written about Dolly Parton’s impact on her life.

Heidi being Heidi and loving Dolly herself, 

She immediately befriended the young girl and her family and decided to write Dolly to tell the little girls’s story.

She a picture of Dolly, a self-addressed and stamped envelope, and asked Dolly if she would sign the picture for the little girl.

 

Dolly did it!

 

Heidi received the autographed picture over the weekend and was gleeful!

She immediately wrote the little girl’s family and asked if they could meet. 

They did.

The little girl squealed in excitement and hugged Heidi four times.

Did Heidi know this student any better than any other non-Greenwood student in the world?

Did the little girl know Heidi any better than any other random teacher in the world?

Barely!

Yet Dolly Parton brought them together and Heidi‘s unending thoughtfulness and kindness solidified the connection. 

 

In the middle of my deeply serious thoughts

This story was a breath of fresh air and made me smile. 

And maybe it was the answer to my questions.

 

Maybe genuinely selfless acts of kindness are what this life is all about. 

Seeing a need and acting.

Seeing a way to make someone happy and doing something about it.

Seeing a loss and offering a solution.

Seeing a commonality and building upon what connects rather than what separates. 

Maybe when we do these things,

We are acting out of love,

And love what is saving this world.

The love of God,

The love of Jesus,

The love of the Spirit,

Living together as one community that gives and creates all things good.

 

May we join that community today,

Not living self-focused, individual lives,

But lives willing to write Dolly Parton and ask for an autograph for a little girl we barely know. 

 

Amen.