Looking Around: What Do You See?

When it’s time for me to go, I picked my bag containing my medical files, and headed towards the hospital. This time it was for a routine check-up for me in the Out Patient Department of the hospital. It was a good time for me to look around that part of the neighborhood.

It took me some time until I enter the underground metro station. A very familiar smell of my office-going days passes through my nostrils. I can see the same billboards as last time but several of them gets changed, dancing to the tune of the political atmosphere in the country. The sight of free-spirited university students was quite riveting.

The changing commuters at several intervals of the stations introduced people of distinguishable occupation, needs, and interest. Some are more appreciative of grace while some hippies don’t possess obligations towards their fellow humans. And, that’s the way of life which make the world a great place to live.

Going back a few years and getting personal, I did not venture out much into the world relatively due to my health problems and quitting my job to become a stay-at-home-dad. In reality, it’s a massive task for me after my brain surgery and the after effect. And that is one reason why I did not drive today.

Once thrown into the open streets, especially a city like ours filled with people of all kind, series of thoughts jetted through my mind.

Looking Around #1:

First, I saw this group of worn-out wedding brass band. Their faces say it all about their work the last night with their instruments looming large over their body. The horns, trumpets, colors, and various instruments are their prized asset for their living.

It seems quite relieving to me once they exited the sliding door after several stations. Some people provide melody of happiness in others lives, although here they’re earning money, at the cost of their hard work.

Consequently, our life’s filled with a melody of joy, love, and happiness from the Lord in His grace. Not everyone enjoys the tide and melody but once we are attuned, in other words, abide in our Savior the melody of life flows in us. Our God never grows weary in the well being of his children.

Looking Around #2:

Second, I went up the stairs from the underground subway station when I saw these bunch of people going the economic way of performing their job. They use a bullock cart in the middle of the busy road even though people kept honking at them.

Their determination and state of mind, although I did not know exactly, overwhelm me. The bullock cart rider cracks jokes, talk mild politics, and about their small-time work contractor as I walked alongside them in the crowded pavement near the road.

Once again, I looked around them with a sense of empathy for their work, but not their outward appearances. We can be at peace even in the tumultuous situation of our lives, especially for the believers knowing that God is on our side. They may be thrown in their position by poverty the same way as we are thrown into unwanted circumstances in life yet have held the hand of God in His grace.

Looking Around #3:

Third, I went passed numbers roadside beggars in the pavement before I enter an empty space. This space was empty that day. The last time I went it was filled with people who were lying down on the ground with the mat or without a mat.

The empty space serves good for street hawkers earning their bread by selling few eatables. As the hospital vicinity has always been crowded and patients thronged the corridors it becomes the only available or affordable place for many.

However, when the temperature rises above 100 degrees or 38 degrees Celsius, which is the norm here in the city, it is hard to see people sweating here in the ground. The evening shade of the hospital building and few trees are always a treat.

Looking Around #4:

Fourth, I climbed up the stairs waiting for my turn in the Department of Neurology. The ticketing or Out Patient Department Counter would always be a sold out as if it were movie theaters showing a box office hit. At times, I wonder why is sickness becoming such rampant in this world?

Some patient comes in a wheelchair, some needs to be held, while some are hard to watch by. In these times, one can rediscover the level of blessing or our privileged even among the sick person for which I thank God as much as I can.

In the long wait, some days, we talked about our problem and how one can keep up the hope. At times, we shared the grace showered upon us by our God, although there are hardly any believers of Christ. The long wait in the corner can be fruitful at times depending upon the kind of person I met.

Looking Around #5:

Fifth, it can almost take a day after meeting the doctor. Hoping for the best, it’s time to leave the premise. My children will be waiting at home and I need to get them some snacks. It was a rough day yet still very happy day if I can meet the doctor.

If it is a wedding season, sometimes I met a number of wedding bands gearing up for the night on the road pavement. They decked up so they appear lucrative in the shining light in the midst of the dark. Day or night, it doesn’t matter, they will work for earning their daily bread.

The bearer of the sweet melodies of life, or for a living, isn’t the rich, maintaining a cozy lifestyle, or wealthy and wise person. But it can also come from every person we met in the day. We can be one of them.

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And Lastly, the tight hugging of my little children when I reach home compares to none. My heart thumped in joy inside me. When we feel we’re alone in the dark or even when people surrounded us, we would see the bright side of life in the most needed time and hour.

And, last night as we talked with my seven-year-old child, our wearies and sin (the original sin) are taken from us and nailed to the cross with Jesus Christ, the Son of God. It is by His grace we are saved; it is by his grace we are still living in this world filled with evil.

Who can say we won’t be sick out entire or living in poverty? It’s just a matter of seconds if things are to be turned around.
Even in the midst of the suffering, we can still hear the sweet melody of God only by his grace. Psalms 57:7, 104:33

My heart, O God, is steadfast,
my heart is steadfast; I will sing and make melody.

Now, I looked around and I saw grace. All the world and its inhabitants, let’s say humans here, for now, are put together by the grace of God in their own place. Let me end herewith a rephrase of 1 Corinthians 15:10

But by His grace; I am what I am…(today)!