Broken Windows

This morning as I was riding a bus to the children's home, I noticed that the windshield on the passenger side had some rather large cracks in it. The driver had even stuffed a piece of cloth through a large hole, I assumed it was to keep it together somehow.

About halfway through the hour long ride, I saw that the driver and his assistant were discussing the broken windshield. I couldn't catch what they were saying - other than bits of stories of what happened on other buses when the windows broke. Hmm...

Then the assistant suddenly hit the windshield with his fist. That didn't seem like a good idea to me, but the driver told him to pick up a spray can and hit it again. I couldn't help but jump a little each time he hit it. As I sat there in my front row seat, I did my best to trust that they knew what they were doing. Maybe there was some sort of physics to their method...

Pretty soon the whole window had cracks in it. The sun was shining bright and the wind was testing its strength, and I worried that the window would break completely. I'm very happy to report that it actually held up for the rest of the time I was on the bus. Who would've thought. Most people who have used public transportation in other countries have a good bus story, but I haven't heard one like this before. It certainly made for an interesting ride ;-).

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"'Glass shines brighter when it's broken... I never noticed that.'"

"The more I think about the meaning of living and acting in the name of Christ, the more I realize that what I have to offer others is not my intelligence, skill, power, influence, or connections, but my own human brokenness through which the love of God can manifest itself."

From Gracias! A Latin American Journal by Henri J.M. Nouwen