Eyes that Really See

Thursday morning I walked into my kitchen to find what Emma affectionately referred to as an "OIL SPILL" all over my kitchen counter. It appeared that my coffee pot had sprung a leak. Not a great way to start my Thursday. I cleaned up the mess, made another smaller pot (W/ NO LEAKS) and went about my day.

Friday morning the exact same thing happened again..this time I was mad. I NEED COFFEE in the morning. I may have told Chad all about it when he called between meetings on Friday morning, and it MAY have been in a very urgent tone. Save the Library stuff could wait... his woman had not had her coffee and it was getting to be close to 11:00 Friday morning.

Can I just tell you that I love that coffee maker. Chad bought it for me the day we moved into this house. It's one of the last appliances that I haven't blown up.

So this morning, after last night's wild and crazy 50th surprise party for our good friend Ron G., I NEEDED coffee. But of course....my pot is cracked. No coffee for me.

We had some errands to run and I figured that I could talk him into swinging into the gas station (since Starbucks was not on our way.) but no. We headed straight for the Home Depot and then the "new" Target.

He was looking at one thing and I headed to check out the coffee makers. I knew that the chances of finding one I REALLY liked and more importantly was in the budget right now, would be slim to none. BUT a girl can dream right?

I'm standing on the aisle looking at this adorable coffee maker with a splash of red on it and thinking THAT would look great in my kitchen when Chad walks up and says. "Look at this one?" It was the one I really liked. What he noticed that I did not, was that it was on sale. Thank you Lord.

As we were checking out, the man of my dreams hands me "coffee money" and says "How about a Starbucks?". Do I really needed to tell you that I nearly skipped over to the Starbucks counter? I didn't think so.

Here is where God tugged on my heart today.

The sweet young lady behind the counter was working alone. There was one family ahead of me with several drink orders. She took my order and told me it would be just a minute. I paid and noticed she seemed on the verge of tears.

I waited a LONG time for that coffee but that was God letting me see her. She was working hard and fast and could not get ahead. She apologized again as she wrote my name on the cup that would hold a Venti White Chocolate Mocha.

As the family in front of me moved on, she had a few more customers waiting in line. Her stress level was through the roof and those eyes were looking like they were about to spill some tears.

When she handed me my coffee I looked her in the eye and said "Thank you. You are doing a great job." As I walked away, my heart sank. I wonder what is going on in her life. Is it just a bad morning at work, or is it more? Did she break up with her boyfriend last night? Is life just hard right now?

I went into Target this morning to look at a coffee maker. God gave me one, AND a cup of my favorite brew BUT....

He also gave me a lesson in the importance of seeing past ME to the person standing right in front of me. Eyes that really SEE...that's what I'm asking Him for.