Burden bearing

A STORY

I saw them walking very slowly down the stony hill.  V.E.R.Y. slowly.  A young man, and a woman I assumed was his wife.  We greeted them and passed on.

A while later, we saw him again. Still walking V.E.R.Y. slowly.  It was obvious that he was favouring his left leg, and that any motion was extremely painful. And then up ahead I saw her.  Smiling.  Waving.  Encouraging.  AND carrying both his backpack and hers.

The Bible says "Bear one another's burdens." Some people make the assumption that means they can pointlessly offload their "stuff" on everyone else.  Not so. (I know that because three verses later the Bible says "Each one should beware his own burden.")

I saw them again today - in fact we are staying with them tonight.  This morning he carried his own pack for a while, and this afternoon - in the rain - she carried it again.

Why?  Because they are going somewhere.  Together.  And in order for them to get there, they have to "bear each other's burdens". (I suspect they will go a long way together.) 

ANOTHER STORY

I saw a blind man walking the Camino.  VERY fast.  Amazingly fast.  Much faster than us.  How could that be?  Because he was loosely attached to the arm of a guide.  A short 8 inch rope attached them at the wrist, and that was enough for the guide (maybe his father) to allow the blind man the freedom to walk.  Two days in a row I saw them, walking, laughing, racing through the Camino. Bearing one another's burdens. 

ANOTHER STORY

Last night I showed a roommate the picture I took of the woman carrying her husband's pack.  She told me that way back in the early days, one afternoon she was hurting really bad, and a man (a stranger to her) offered to carry her pack.  "It was off in an instant."   Bearing one another's burdens.  

That's it.  Three stories.  You can make your own "moral of the story", because although I am a preacher, I am on sabbatical, and it's too much work to draw conclusions.  

Buen Camino.