In the normal course of daily events, at least some of us come into contact with all kinds of different people. Some of them are genuinely concerned when there is cause for worry; some are truly capable of celebrating joy and happy moments; and others are only concerned with their own agendas. To be fair, sometimes even these have legitimate reasons for their self-absorbed manner, but one would hope that there would be at least the odd ray of sunshine that would be capable of breaking through the clouds and shrouds that encircle their peripheries.
Sometimes it takes a new wind to blow away such cobwebs and to jolt us into seeing beyond our own concerns to the truth of others who are either worse off than we, or perhaps even in need of our help. At times, this wind is a gentle breeze, but at other moments, its necessary that a tempest or a gale arrive in our lives to shake everything up and to wash away all the clutter.
These are the kinds of experiences that can arrive without much warning, but ones that we should be on the lookout for. In the time of Jesus, he used words to wake up his listeners, but I wonder what other tactics he used. I wonder too if he needed to be shaken up from time to time by people like his parents, perhaps his grandparents or other wisdom people among his family and friends. We all need those kinds of moments from time to time, and we should always be ready to thank the people who dare to shake us up ... because in the end they do it out of love and make us better people.
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