The Little Old Man.

Today I had an encounter with this very old little man. I would say he was in his 80's but I could be wrong. He was hunched over but yet was a good foot taller than me. His washed out blue eyes were slightly watering and his skin was a light white yellow, so thin that you could see most of the veins. His overall appearance gave a feeling of ancientness. What made me notice him was the fact that he was ahead of me in line, but was talking to someone sitting in one of the tables. I was standing behind him for a while but then I asked him if he was in line. He turned around and started rambling about something, to which I impatiently asked a second time if he was in line. He then abruptly stopped talking, then slowly said yes and moved forward to the line. There were several people still ahead of us which gave me a chance to think.

I might have imagined it, but when I asked him the second time, he seemed to be hurt that I wasn't listening to his story. It stunned me to realize that this man in front of me had feelings. Something so simple, yet something I so often forget about. He was so old, so broken down and slow, he seemed almost like a totally alien species to me. But then I began thinking. I looked at him as a real human being. Many years ago, he must have been very tall and athletically built. He must have had goals in life. He must have been in love. He most likely had bright blue eyes and thick light colored hair. He went to a high school and felt the stress of homework. He worried over fights with his sweetheart. He worked hard at his job and saved money for college. Maybe he fought in a war. He must have felt disappointed in his failures at one time. He must have been proud of who he was at one time. He used to be strong, young, and handsome. Someone that others would follow. He loved his car that he bought and took good car of it in his college years. He married the love of his life and they put their lives into raising their family. He once saw an old man walking in the street and hoped he'd never get old.

I don't know how much of that is true, if any of that is true. But one thing happened today. I saw a human as a human. I felt such love for the old man as he told the waiter about his wife that was waiting for him as he slowly ordered his meal. This strange, watery-eyed, hunched over, wrinkled old man was a human. He was once young like me. He once loved like me. He once felt the same emotions to life as I do. And I almost gave that little old man a hug. Because I saw him with the eyes of love. I saw him through the eyes of my Savior. What I saw wasn't an old, wrinkled, slow moving, mumbling old man; it was a real living soul that God specifically created and loves so dearly. Inside that old shell of a body was a human soul that once was just like me. Maybe someday when I'm old, some young person will feel the same way about me. What a difference it makes when we look at people as though they are people. Love changes the way you view the world. Love makes you see people the way the One who is Love itself see them! So when you see someone and you're tempted to judge them, just remember, they are just like you.