Stealing Weeds, Being a Friend

I went for a walk today. Mrs. Woodard was on the College Street Bridge as I walked across it. She is out in the neighborhood almost every day working. She lives just north of the College Bridge. She is short and moves pretty slowly. I wouldn't have a good idea about her age, but I'm sure it's north of 70. She has the most amazing smile. When you greet her, she smiles and it appears for a moment as if she has just been caught doing something mischievious and she hopes you found out! You can see her out early in the morning or in the heat of the day -- usually with an implement of some kind in her hand. It might be as big as a rake or a broom (the better to pull up weeds, or to clean off the sidewalk), it might be as small as a trowel or a garbage bag (to pull up the toughest weeds around the block, or to pick up the trash that gets discarded by cars driving through our inner city neighborhood). In the winter she often is out with a snow shovel. Her hands are always busy.

She has an amazing spirit...and if you ever walk by her she'll say a word to you and tell you what's going on, what she is doing in particular, or what she has observed. For the 20 plus years that I have been around this neighborhood she has been a constant in good weather and bad. She cares about this community. She loves this neighborhood. She cares about its people. She cares about the way it looks. She cares about the grass, and the weeds, and the flowers, and the trees, and the leaves. She is in love with all of the creation around here.

She once asked a member of our church if she could "steal your weeds." Seems the triangle park just east of the church building was getting a little "weedy." I often see her out in the triangle making sure that the weeds are not taking over that space. It is not "her" space in the sense of ownership. It is "her" space in the sense of community and our shared life together.

Today, she was working on the College Street Bridge because the folks from the city were out cutting the grass along Fall Creek. She told me that years ago, a neighbor who died awhile back, planted some rose bushes along the College Street Bridge. Where we were standing the grass had gotten a little high...and she had a long handled cutting instrument and was hacking down the grass around the rose bushes. She explained to me that she knew that when the fellow from the city got the lawn mower over to this point here, he would just go ahead and mow it all down. Why? Because he's a bad guy? No. Because he truly wouldn't even see it. He wouldn't even know that he was cutting down the rose bushes planted by her neighbor to beautify this part of the inner city. The cars driving by won't notice the roses either, for that matter. It is really for those of us who live and walk around here.

I started to walk away and then I stopped and asked if I could take her photograph. She stood there proudly next to her efforts. Because of her our life will be a little more beautiful. Because of her, there will be a bit more color in our walk, and at least for a brief time a fragrance that will remind us of the rich diversity of our life together.

One of my favorite scriptures can be found in John 15. Jesus says to his disciples, as he is preparing to leave them, "I do not call you servants any longer, because the servant does not know what the master is doing; but I have called you friends, because I have made known to you everything that I have heard from God." Two verses later he says, "I am giving you these commands so that you may love one another." I think of what Mrs. Woodard is doing and I realize that she is showing me that love for one another that Jesus speaks of to his disciples. She and the city worker (the public servant) remind me of the difference between being a servant and being a friend. A friend knows where the rose bushes come from and thinks of that person when they look to see that they can be preserved for another year.

Mrs. Woodard is a living reminder to me for us to love one another. Each day. Without fail.