In December, I was leaving Hobby Lobby and walking toward my car. I saw a woman kneeling by my car, and I thought she might have dropped something by my car. As I got closer, she asked if it was my car. After I told her yes, she told me she accidentally scratched the back of my car when she was trying to park. She was trying to get the scratch marks off my car, and she was visibly upset. I could tell she was frustrated with herself and on the verge of tears. I calmly told her, "It's okay. It's not a big deal." I could tell my car was a little scratched, but there wasn't a dent. She said, "Let me give you my insurance and contact information." I told her that was not necessary, and I said I wasn't concerned. Eventually, she told me thank you and I could tell she was truly so grateful that I was not upset and that I did not feel the need to get an insurance company involved. She said her child had just recently started driving so her insurance bills have skyrocketed. She was worried about having to contact her insurance company about this ordeal at Hobby Lobby. She told me, "Merry Christmas," and we went on our ways.
I never would have known that this woman had recently had a new stressor in her life. And she didn't know what I had gone through last year. I wanted to say, "I have had a very hard year, so a scratch on my car is nothing. It truly does not matter to me." I've thought about that day often. Small things that used to seem like a big issue to me no longer matter so much.
The strange thing is that life goes on. When I feel like I have a big sign on my head that everyone can tell my world was shattered, life goes on. When I experienced the worst news of my life, the world didn't stop. MY world stopped. But theirs did not. Most people went on about their day as though one of the worst, unimaginable things ever hadn't just happened. I've thought, "How can they not see I am so broken inside?" Because I look mostly the same on the outside. Somehow, I appear "normal" even though I feel far from normal on the inside. I show up to class, church services, and events, and I look like my normal self. I don't feel like my normal self. I haven't felt normal since May 28, 2024. But they don't know that. I recently was asked, "Do you have any children?" I talked about Jensen, and eventually the woman I was talking with said, "We never know what people are going through." Isn't that so true?
We should show grace towards those around us because we never know what might be going on in their world.