Friday, May 16, 2008

The asthma angel

I've never really thought about whether or not angels can have sicknesses, because quite frankly the reality of the answer to that question has never affected me, however today, the angel i was visited by had asthma, and because of it, my work was given purpose and through it significance.

Up until asthma angel's visit i had been slightly perturbed in my work. As some may know working for Alexander Kaiser almost always involves huge quantities of sand, the largest piles of rocks ever amassed by mankind, and all other thinkable abnormal objects and trash; and lest we forget the wheel barrel, with the name Arora spray painted on the side; yes of course that blessed orange, never flat wheel barrel, to be used to carry whatever material we are dealing with, from one side of the property another. And don't ask my father why or for what purpose, because you will rarely get an answer besides, "because I asked you to do it."

Today it was Aloe plants, like none ever seen. Planted into a solid embankment of large rocks, and stretching their fanged arms in every directly, effectively thwarting any potential of digging a shovel anywhere near its roots. I swear they were gigantic, and i snapped two ropes trying to pull them out with a truck.

Anyways, upon pulling the first one out, i dragged it to the road and began working on the second and most vicious of the aloe plants. Near the point where i would have sworn that i'd never remove that plant from its rock filled home, a van pulled up.

He stood just about 6 foot tall, roughly 35 years old; a thicker angel with a shaved head; tan skin and a Spanish accent. I never caught his name but he was a plumber and drove a white van.
I've never seen someone so excited to see aloe plants half way out of the ground. To his surprise i was getting rid of all of them, and to my surprise he asked if he could help me pull one out and load it into his van to take home.

"It helps with asthma," he said, as he opened up the double doors at the back of his van. "Take it to bed with you," i replied to his eager request.

It was then that he removed a shovel from his van and began working with me to get a large section of plant number 2 out of the ground, and it was then that i realized that angels must have sicknesses because this one did. After loading it up into his van, he thanked me very kindly, and went on his way. It was in this moment that i realized that Christ uses the ordinary, the practical things to teach us life's most important truths. He uses the middle aged men with asthma and his delight in aloe plants to reveal that even the mundane and everyday toil is ultimately significant, for while it all may seem like chasing after wind, it is to His glory that i labor, eat, read a book, write, or sleep.

Now i'll never know to what extent landscaping or shoveling large piles of dirt will glorify Christ, but maybe it does, maybe the small, mundane tasks that i perform everyday, are ultimately what helps to bring about Christ's kingdom today. i sure hope so, because sometimes that is the only thought that brings any significance to the all too often seemingly meaningless nature of this life.

Well, all i can truly say is that I've never been so proud to pull aloe plants out of the ground.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

"because i told you to" my favorite response to hear from dad. this writing is clutch kid.

MeredithMiller said...

AMEN to ya brother! :) this short-story, if i may call it that, was so enjoyable to read! God has blessed you with a thoughtful mind and many talents to express it michael! oh and i love aloe plants btw! haha ironically enough it has recently occurred to me how funny God is to make aloe plants. i was running to one of my last finals at pba and bumped into one of those suckers and got a good scratch. i then wanted to break a piece off to rub it on my wound. it hurts and heals! haha! God is so cool! really loved this story, im craving more! write write ;) ps hope your summer is going wonderfully my friend!

Kayla said...

this explains my weird conversation with you on the way to the John Wayne airport. You kept going on and on about these gigantic aloe plants, but now I understand. thank you Jesus for aloe, and asthma.