Quarters & Muffins

The gift of holding the Creator in common

“Friendship is a hard thing to define. To me it is a portion of creation held in common.” - Benton MacKaye

---

I pulled into a street parking spot by my favorite café to take a few creative hours. I noticed the black truck in front of me had a “Faith over fear” bumper sticker and an out-of-state license plate, and when the couple got out, they shared a sweet kiss before heading to the café. They seemed hesitant when they walked past the parking meters, so I grabbed my old Mentos Gum container of quarters and popped four into the meter.

“Well, bless your heart! Like the actual blessing of your heart, not the negative way some people use it,” the man said.

We walked into the café together, and then I ordered my coffee and muffin and sat down. After a few minutes, they brought over a muffin for me. “We wanted to buy one for you but you beat us to it, so here is another one for you.”

I learned that they were traveling through the area and had swung out of their way to visit the café in hopes they could support a Christian-owned business. We chatted about the Lord, their love for Him evident in their actions towards me, each other, and the café staff. Then they asked if they could pray for me and we took a few minutes to bless each other with prayer. “The Lord keeps redirecting our steps today,” my new friends told me on their way out. Isn’t that His graciousness when we are obedient to being a follower?

On the way home, I listened to this sweet podcast episode with another favorite local café owner today and this quote stuck out to me -

“My life has been seasoned with a lot of loss…I think of that as ‘Well, I’ve been blessed to know a lot more people and love a lot more people very deeply, maybe more so than some other people in my life...but the thing that I’ve taken from that is this continuing push to really love everybody religionally, even if it’s only for a moment…if I’m the last person [my customers] speak to before they pass, I want to make sure it’s a really good interaction.”

As a wife, mom, and friend, when I get solo hours, I become a little bit of a chicken with my head cut off in trying to decide how not to waste it. This morning’s goal was to notice. I packed a variety of creative supplies, and then I sat and doodled the scene before me with a sharpie. I chatted with the couple. I greeted another couple who I recognize from our church. I got to clean up a few things that others had left behind. I noticed the way the sun fell on the sidewalk, the dancing of the trees in the wind. To notice is to ground oneself with reality.

In a world that is full of bitter assumptions and one-sided opinions and people’s individually-lived experiences, what am I doing to walk with the Spirit? Am I creating margin for Divine interruptions and interactions? Am I willing to put myself out there with what I have to offer - whether it’s quarters or coffee for friends or blessings? Am I making my interactions with others good ones to the best of my ability? Am I seeing people through the lens of what portion of creation we hold in common?

Paul writes in Galatians 5:25, “If we live by the Spirit, let us also keep in step with the Spirit.”

I want to find commonalities with people even amongst our stark differences, but even more so, I want to BE a person who holds a portion of the Creator and displays evidence of that.