When I Grow Up...

Lake Alpine 2015-Picture is not related to post! :)

Is it possible to find God in the full range of human emotions and behavior, however inappropriately expressed? As I stood in line at my local drugstore yesterday, the woman ahead of me and being helped by the cashier was pitching a fit. I see no other way to describe her behavior short of it being a child like tantrum. And yet that is maligning children somehow since their young minds are not fully formed and they have not yet learned the fine art of restraint. This was an adult woman probably well into her sixties. I have no way of knowing her circumstances or demands other than the ones that she loudly stated: she was in a hurry, had only five minutes, that someone else was in the wrong and that she wanted the manager right now! I was embarrassed for her, truly. When it was my turn to be helped I went out of my way to be kind and polite to the clerk. I then walked out of the store wondering about what I could learn.

What occurred to me afterwards is that humans probably aren't meant to treat each other like this no matter the circumstances. It just isn't nice. And while the full expression of human behavior is both fascinating and repellent to me, I have to wonder about all of us being made in God's image. Are these kinds of interactions what our creator had in mind? We are flawed in the worst ways. Is this part of the plan? I don't know but I can only say that the if the above scene had to happen (and I am not sure that I believe unkindness and cruelty are part of the overall design) for some reason then that moment that I witnessed shouldn't be wasted. It's a reminder to me at least to do better, to try harder and to be as sensitive and aware as possible for as much of the time as possible. 
Libby