I don't frequent McDonalds, but sometimes I find myself sitting in one of the booths in an unplanned fashion, usually if I'm in need of a study place that isn't the library (aka the ACU social hangout) or my bedroom (in which I am too easily prone to fall captive to a nap or worse: Netflix). Sometimes I find myself simply craving a Big Mac, because even though I've largely implemented a peskitarian lifestyle into my daily routine over the last few years, sometimes I just want hamburger meat (I'm probably the worst peskitarian on the planet, but whatever).
Or, you know, the lowest grade meat on the grid other than Taco Bell.
So, for these reasons and others, every now and then I find myself at McDonalds.
Because I can loose myself in my studies, easily accumulating to the noises and atmosphere around me. Because I can chow down on french fries shamelessly and slurp my large Dr. Pepper without judgment. Because I love the terrible, cheesy, old nineties pop songs that are constantly playing (we're talking Britney Spear's 'Lucky', Gwen Stefani, and such). No one cares, even though it's awful, because this place isn't about music. It's about just coming and sitting, coming and being yourself around people who are just as human as you are. Because of that old couple sitting a few booths over, sharing one milkshake with two straws and giggling to one another as if they were still sitting in an old fifties diner as two crazy-in-love young people. Because of the Morgan Freeman doppleganger sitting at the table right beside me, just eating his Big Mac and commenting on my homework for Historical Books of the Old Testament.
As if we had known each other before this moment.
'Honey, you stick with that. That's important stuff you're learning'.
It certainly is, and sometimes I need that reminder. It's not just homework. It's truth.
Because of the two blonde cuties sitting at a two-person bar table together, legs dangling from their too-tall chairs and hair flipping with each turn of their heads as they giggle and point at who knows what around them. Little kids can find joy in anything.
Because of moments such as the following, in which God is moving:
Two tables over, two moms and two sons sit together, about to partake in a meal. The moms are about to dig in and one little boy, probably no older than four or five, waves his hands frantically, shrieks, and grabs everyone else at the table's attention: 'WAIT!'
'We didn't do the bless'.
Oh my word, I smiled so big.
The mom smiled. 'You go right ahead'.
'God, thank you for food. It's a bless. Teach us to give the bless to others so they can have bless too. And thank you for Jesus. And please don't let me fall on the playground again. Amen'.
Because even in an old, casual, free-of-expectation Abilene McDonalds God is present and moving, reminding me to love my neighbor, teaching me that prayer is about having an honest heart, and showing me that joy is found in the everyday lives of ordinary, broken, in need of grace people.
