Hiding in Plain Sight

“I was getting ready to leave the office when he asked me for a ride.” – Barbara

Hiding in Plain Sight

Barbara had come to help me.  She did.  Just not in the way I expected her to!

We were talking, as she was getting ready to leave.  I invited her to sit while she put her shoes back on.  She declined, saying that she was just fine bending down.  I watched as she slid her right foot out and tugged her first shoe on. 

“I need to get going.”  She said.  “I’m on my way to deliver some things to a guy I work with.”

I allowed the conversation to move into a short lull, in hopes that she would continue on.  She did.

“I was getting ready to leave the office when he asked me for a ride.”  She said as she reached for her left shoe.  “I thought I was just giving him a ride to his house, but that wasn’t the case!  Once we were in the car he asked if I would be kind enough to take him to the local food pantry so he could get dinner for his kids!”

She shoved her foot into the left shoe as a look of satisfaction stretched across her face.

“I couldn’t believe it!  Here’s this guy, I work with every day, who is always happy and smiling, telling me he needed help to feed his kids!”  She said as a few sparks flew from her eyes.

Since that occurrence, less than a week ago, she had mobilized others in her office to begin to help their friend.  The man they never really knew.

“We’ve all gone through our homes to find the things his family needs.  We’ve given them beds, tables, couches and other things that were just sitting, unused, in our homes.  Those things weren’t doing anything for us, but they have meant the world to him!  We all cleaned out our pantries as well.  Still, there are a few more things I need to stop and purchase before I visit him tonight.”  She continued with her hand turning the doorknob so she could exit quickly.

I made her stop, before she left, so we could reached into our own pantry and help a little as well.  Barbara’s eyes glistened as she thanked us and turned to the last leg of her day’s work.  I watched as she walked down my sidewalk to get in her car thinking back to when she had arrived.

When Barbara came to visit me I knew nothing about her.  By the time she left, I knew everything I needed to know about her. 

We often spend our workdays in polite conversation with those we come into contact with; we think we know them, but we really don’t.  I knew I didn’t know Barbara when she came and she made me wonder if I really knew anything at all about the many people, I now knew, I was simply pretending to know.

The man Barbara works with, and was pretending to know, was really an acquaintance before.  Now she’s his friend! She thought he was there to help her with her work.  Now she knows he was given a place in her life for a great purpose. He’s there to allow her to discover satisfaction and real meaning in her life; always there, hiding in plain sight.