Every day for the past couple of months, she walks into the local coffee shop, orders a single Timbit and a medium black coffee, and sits by the window to watch the pedestrians or read the book she pulls from her purse. 
At the same time, every afternoon, she stays for about an hour, until her phone dings, and she stands up and rushes out.
A guest post from Adena Lowry. Adena is a retired teacher, a fellow writer and friend. She shared this post with me and I wanted you to enjoy it as well.
Wondering
I wonder if the cafe workers notice her presence. I wonder if they question why this impeccably dressed elderly woman has started to routinely frequent their shop for such short bursts of time. Have they made up reasons why she is there so often, why she leaves so quickly, why she sits there alone, or why she stares out the window with an open book in front of her?
Maybe it is because she is lonely. Or a good friend has recently passed. Maybe she is waiting for someone at the hospital down the street. Maybe she is caring for someone who is sick. Or is she is waiting for someone who is undergoing treatment, and when their appointment is completed, she jumps to pick them up and take them home? Maybe she is trying with every fibre of her being to hold it together while her son struggles with cancer, making the best of their time together. 
Mom
Maybe this is all true. Maybe this is my mom.
“It is an honour and a privilege to care for your child going through cancer”, both my mother and father have conveyed this to me on different occasions. “It’s one less thing he has to worry about. We spend time together, we listen, we talk, and sometimes we’re simply quiet.”
Being simply quiet is actually an action that spurs on compassion. Jesus often acted with compassion. He had compassion on the leper in need of physical healing, on the blind and the hungry in need of emotional healing, and on the lost in need of spiritual healing. Jesus taught about compassion in His parable of the indebted servant who received forgiveness for his debt but was unwilling to show compassion to one who owed him.
Compassion
Sometimes it is in the quietness of the moment compassion appears. In the silence, humility rushes in, à shared understanding is felt, and the ability to see from someone else’s perspective is visible. Compassion is the antidote for indifference. It moves you from apathy, to sympathy, to action. Compassion is a verb. Romans 2:4 tells us to heed God’s kindness, which is to lead us to repentance.
God’s grace is in his kindness. If we can grasp one iota of the kindness & grace that God has poured out for us, we will be humbled, and hopefully become more Christ-like in our compassion. When we are able to receive this indescribable, unfathomable gift of grace, we are led from condemnation to compassion.
Grace
In 2 Corinthians 5:16, Paul tells the church to no longer regard anyone from a worldly point of view. Regarding others from a Godly perspective is to see others as a loving Father sees them, lost and not knowing what they are doing (Luke 23:34). The grace that we have received requires that it be poured out on others so they too are to be able to receive God’s grace. This is the gospel. God became poor so I could become rich. God has deposited his grace in my heart as a promise that he is not finished with me yet.
If we are to be ambassadors for Christ, we are to be different from the world, set apart, and show humility instead of pride, demonstrate patience not selfishness, plant seeds of love and truth not unforgiveness and judgment. Perhaps the generosity of God in my life is to bless someone else. Possibly, my surplus is to fill someone else’s need.
For now, I will simply be quiet. I will go to the coffee shop too, sit by the window and wait, counting it a privilege to serve God, serve others, and pray for their hearts to see God’s grace.
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