Gospel of Matthew, chapter 18:10

“Who the heck keeps on doing this?” Wayne Morgan bellowed at his wife as he stomped into the kitchen early one fall morning, laden with groceries, shaking the rain from his overcoat. “What’re you talking about, honey?” his wife Linda asked absently, concentrating on the pancakes she was skillfully flipping. “Some idiot keeps tampering with the garbage cans. For the last few days, somebody keeps moving one of the garbage cans from the front yard into the alleyway right under the bedroom windows. Is this some crazy kind of joke?” His wife teased, “I know it must be annoying to have to keep on moving the garbage can back to the front, but really it’s no big deal. What’s the fate of the wandering garbage can today?”

Last night, Wayne said, “I moved the garbage can into the front yard, and this morning when I left for the supermarket it was back in the alley, So I returned the can to the front, and when I got home from shopping, there it was in the alley again!” Linda asked, casually changing the subject, “can you please fix the guardrail on the baby’s window? It’s very loose and now that she’s crawling around and standing, I’m afraid she can hoist herself up to the window seat and who knows what could happen?” “Oh my God,” Tom shrieked. “You didn’t tell me the guardrail was broken! I opened the window this morning and I took the baby out of the crib before I left for the market.

The two exchanged a frantic look and raced to the bedroom. The guardrail was gone from the window, the baby missing from the room. Linda screamed and slumped into a chair. Tom willed himself to look out the open window, expecting the worst. A choking sob escaped from his lips half-grasp, half – benediction, as his eyes widened in amazement at the scene below. Two stories beneath the open bedroom window, a familiar cooing sound came from the baby, whose little arms were flailing energetically as she tried to extricate herself from the cushion that had buffed her fall. She was nestled in the garbage can filled with the soft leaves that her father had raked and deposited there during the entire week.

Linda Morgan

Comment:
God’s angels minister to those in need, especially little children who are His most vulnerable ones. Wayne was upset by the “wandering garbage can.” It refused to stay still so that the garbage collectors could collect the fallen leaves which Wayne was putting there all week. When the baby fell into the soft cushion of leaves in the garbage can from two stories above, Wayne and Linda finally understood. God was watching over their baby.

Fr. Hugh Duffy