The Power of a Random Act of Kindness

By Randy Knapp

Often there is a single characteristic or gesture that captures the unique essence of an individual – maybe it’s the singular way you wink when delivering a punch line, maybe it’s the natural crease lines that radiate from your eyes and mouth when you flash your infectious smile, or the way you roll your eyes when you’ve unmasked a fraud. Could it be that there is a single gesture that distinguishes you from everyone else in creation, that in essence defines you?

For many years I have been fascinated by the continuing research in theoretical physics for the theory that unites all physical forces – that reduces the majesty of creation into its most basic elements. This theory proposes unification between the weak gravitational forces controlling interactions between galaxies, suns, and their constituent planetary systems, and the strong nuclear forces that govern interactions between subatomic particles.

Weak gravitational forces influence the motion of planetary and solar bodies often separated by many billions of miles, while strong nuclear forces govern particle relationships over distances less than a billionth of an inch. The research strives to reduce all these forces to their smallest constituent units, then reassemble them in a single formula that survives to become a logical mathematically proven theory.

I’ve tried to understand God on these same terms. It’s difficult to comprehend a God who knows everything, exists everywhere at once, is all-powerful, and knows the end from the beginning by traveling freely backward and forward in time. It is not easy to wrap my mind around something or someone so vast.

So I endeavor to know God on His smallest terms, to reduce His essence to a single common denominator – the one act that ties together all He has been trying to communicate to humankind through the ages.

There is one image that does this. It contains all the power of God’s creation, all His judgments through the ages, all His prophecies that forge a pathway into the misty future. That image is Jesus, kneeling in the dirt at the feet of a trembling, frantic woman who is only moments from certain condemnation and death. In that moment Jesus focused all His attention, all His powers, all His mind on one thing. He wanted this woman to know that when she was at her end, when all of creation seemed to be focused on her destruction, there was One person who would stand with her, to love her, and to save her.

The image of Jesus on His knees had its genesis at creation when He knelt on the ground and reached out in semicircles gathering the dirt He needed to form Adam. It continued with one of His last acts of service to His disciples as He knelt on the floor of the upper room and washed the clinging dust from the feet of His hungry, weary companions. It will end as Jesus kneels on the ground in heaven to pick each of us up as we collapse in tears of gratitude at His feet during our first face-to-face introduction.

Jesus, on His knees, explains it all. That gesture illuminates the confusion and misunderstandings of the past, and shapes the future filled with hope and promise that no matter what happens, no matter how dark things may seem, there will always be One person who will be with us at what we perceive to be our bitter end. He will kneel there in the dust with us with a singular purpose. All of God’s creative powers, His ability to be in all places at once, His ability to know all things about all people has only one purpose. In the end, after all is said and done, it is His intention to love and save each one of us.

Randy writes from Medford, OR. You can correspond with him at knappsnest@msn.com