Today, as soon as I entered the bus, I saw that the back of the bus was completely full while the front half of the bus was completely empty. Normally, the front of the bus gets filled up before people are willing to take the back seats. I looked to the one person sitting at the front of the bus and saw a homeless woman sitting with all her life belongings. Seeing that scenario broke my heart. All the people in the back of the bus were looking at me, wondering where I was going to sit down, so of course I took a seat next to the sleeping homeless woman. I’m pretty sure the woman was not aware that I was sitting there, but I hoped that somehow my presence would give her hope.
When the bus got to the woman’s stop, the bus driver woke the woman up, helped her unload her things, and assisted her off the bus. The woman was old so she was slow to gather her things, but the bus driver waited patiently and told her to have a good day. Seeing the bus driver’s interaction with the homeless woman brought a smile to my face and warmed my heart. I guess there are good Samaritans in this broken city after all.
The next stop was my stop so I moved up and stood next to the bus driver. He pointed at my building and asked me if I was going there. I nodded and I told him that it was student housing. He told me that he always dreamed of going to college, but fell asleep during high school so he couldn’t go. He laughed about it, but I could see a sadness in his kind eyes. For the second time during that bus ride, my heart broke. Something I never understood about this broken world is how someone with a big heart is only allowed to dream while another person with a selfish heart is allowed to live out their dreams? But then again, maybe it is because of the fact that this IS a broken world.
This week is Passion Week. God saw this broken world filled with its broken people, but still chose to sacrifice his Son to die on the cross. I think that as I get older, I become more aware of how broken we really are and how ridiculous Jesus’ act of sacrifice was. Who am I, Lord, that You are mindful of me?
