Today's Paper

Most people go to Starbucks for the coffee. I go for the Green Tea Frappuccinos and to find an alternative place to read, write, and eavesdrop. Today was no exception.

I went to Starbucks with the intention of getting some good reading done but as usual I found myself distracted by the people around me. I did read but it was the conversations that proved to be most time consuming. In particular it was the woman who no joke, blew a gasket over the fact that there wasn’t a copy of today’s paper. I literally watched this woman bring two baristas over to the newspaper stand to show them that the Times was gone.

I have to say, I was pretty impressed with the way the baristas handled the situation. They remained calm, polite and straight faced even though I know on the inside they were fuming/laughing their heads off at this woman who said that the paper (Seattle Times) is whole reason why she comes to Starbucks. This obviously was true because she refused a copy of the P.I., the New York times, and yesterday’s paper and instead chose to leave all together.

Now, as I sat there watching this woman become quite agitated at the fact that there wasn’t a copy of today’s Times all I could think of was “get a life.” I mean really, it’s just a newspaper. It’s not a first addition novel.

BUT, what if instead of judging her I had bought her a cup of coffee? What if I had bought her a cup of coffee and gone across the street to buy her a copy of today’s paper?

I didn’t. In fact, it didn’t even cross my mind at the time. But now I can’t help but wonder, how exhilarating that would have been. How counter intuitive. How Christlike.

It’s my hope that I run into this woman again. Because today when I had the opportunity to share an ever so brief, ever so important glimpse of Christ’s love for us I missed it. And now looking back I regret it.

Buying that woman a copy of today’s paper wouldn’t have made the front page, but it very well could have made her day.