One at a Time

Laura Booz: I was just popping into the grocery store real quick, to grab a couple of items. To get in and get out.

But I ran into Marie in the entryway by the shopping carts. She hugged me in her usual way, kissed me on the cheek, and as she held my hands in hers, she asked how I was doing. She asked how Ryan was doing. She asked about each of our children, by name. 

And then she told me how she and her family were getting along. Throughout the entire conversation, Marie thanked the Lord and praised the Lord as if He were right there, in the grocery store with us. 

As always, it was lovely to catch up with her, but after a few minutes, I was feeling like we should both move on. We needed to get our shopping done. Surely, she felt the same way. But I watched her for cues that she needed to go. She didn’t shake her car keys, she didn’t look at the time or glance at her shopping list as if to remind me of the real reason she was at the grocery store. 

Instead, she acted as if she had come here to talk with me. 

Eventually, I looked at the time and unfolded my shopping list, and told her I had to go. Then, in typical Marie fashion, she left me with a warm smile and the words, “God bless you, Laura.”

Hi there. You’re listening to Expect Something Beautifulwith Laura Booz. Your expectations really matter, and well, what you expect to matter, will shape your entire story. 

As I pushed my shopping cart into the produce sections, I wondered how Marie ever got anything done. I mean, I knew she was a busy woman, a wife, a mother, homeschooling her children, often baking cakes for people, delivering flowers, serving the community in a variety of ways. Yet, whenever we ran into each other, she never hurried on. 

It was if she didn’t have anywhere more important to be and she didn’t have anything more important to do than to talk with me. 

One day, not long after that conversation, the Lord decided that Marie did have somewhere better to be, and He took her home. 

I made plans to attend her memorial service. When I arrived, the large sanctuary was already packed. Standing room only, I found a spot against the back wall and looked out over the hundreds of people gathered together to remember Marie.

Honestly, I was surprised. Typically, when such a large crowd gathers like this, it’s to honor a person who had a public platform of some sort, a teacher maybe, a minister, someone who had a way of reaching many people at once. But Marie didn’t have such a lifestyle. 

She lived a small, humble life. I mean truly, she was the lady chatting in the entryway of the grocery store. 

During the service, one of her dear friends got up to the podium and said, “One thing I’ve always treasured about Marie, is that every time I saw her, she would say my name. She would hug me, and kiss me on the cheek, and bless me, and she never hurried on.”

I was standing there amazed that I shared the same exact experience. Yes, I know, she was the best. 

Then her friend looked out at the rest of us and said, “You know, I’m just wondering if any of you have been similarly blessed by Marie?” And you know, it was something, I watched as the room seemed to come alive. Every single person nodded. 

Hundreds of people smiled, touched their hand to their cheek, remembering her kiss. We each had been blessed by Marie.

I was amazed that in her relatively short lifetime, Marie had accomplished a staggering amount of work. She had shared the love of Christ with every person in that room, and I’m sure countless others who would have been there if they could. 

I had been so concerned about how Marie was getting anything done, but as it turns out, we were the work Marie was doing all along.

I had never known anyone quite like Marie, she was one of a kind. Yet, she was simply living the way God calls all of us to live. Anyone who has received God’s love is called to love others in a special focused way. 

Maybe not through conversations in the grocery store, certainly through whatever circumstances and gifts and relationships He has given us.

I recently noticed that Jesus’ disciple, John, truly grasped this lifestyle too. John stood at the foot of the cross when Jesus died. He recorded what happened there, including his own personal story. 

In John 19 he writes, 

When Jesus saw his mother, Mary and the disciple whom he loved, John standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.

What a poignant picture of a person looking at the cross, receiving Jesus’ love, and immediately extending that love to one other person. In this case, to Jesus’ mother, Mary. 

Imagine how life changed when John took Mary to his own home and cared for her as if she were his mother. Years later, John wrote this in a letter, 

Behold what manner of love the Father has given unto us that we should be called children of God. By this we know love, that He laid down His life for us, and we ought to lay our lives down for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in talk but in deed and in truth. We love because He first loved. If anyone says I love God and hates his brother, he is a liar. For he who does not love his brother, whom he has seen cannot love God who he has not seen. And this commandment we have Him, whoever loves God must also love his brother. (passages from 1 John)

My dear listener, you and I are called to this same lifestyle, to receive God’s love for us, and then to share His love with others, often, one person at a time—our spouse, our child, our mother, our father, our friend, our neighbor, the person in the grocery store. 

Marie’s work continues to bear fruit as her friends and family consider her example. 

You know, when we think of her, we remember to take time to be with Jesus to receive His love, and learn from Him what truly matters. 

Expect Something Beautiful is part of the Revive Our Hearts podcast family. Let me tell you about another podcast in that family, it’s called Grounded. You can watch it every Monday as a videocast at 9 (ET), or listen to the podcast that comes out each Wednesday.

Grounded started during COVID lockdowns as a way for women to experience hope and perspective in community, and it was such a help to so many of us, the podcast and videocast continued after lockdowns ended. 

Will Grounded replace those grocery store conversations? Not necessarily, but it will model ways to interact with women over the truth of God’s Word. It will help you to know how to better instigate some of those grocery store conversations. You can get more information on Grounded by visiting ReviveOurHearts.com.

I also hope you’ll read my blog, LauraBooz.com. You’ll read more stories like the one you just heard, helping you incorporate God’s truth into real life. 

Expect Something Beautiful is a production of Revive Our Hearts calling women to freedom, fullness, and fruitfulness in Christ.