Sometimes a Plastic Grocery Bag is Better Than an Easter Basket

Easter Services at my church were outstanding. The music was beautiful and inspiring. The sermons were uplifting. But the main lesson I learned had nothing to do with Easter. The religious leader Spencer W. Kimball once said, “God does notice us, and He watches over us. But, it is usually through another person that He meets our needs.” During church I witnessed a messy, yet simple example of that principle.

There were about 250 people at church on Easter. We sit in pews that are arranged in rows in front of the pulpit. About 5 rows from the front on the right hand side, a little boy suddenly got sick. I looked up when I heard the commotion and saw Amy, the boy’s mother, pick him up to carry him to the back of the church. He was throwing up pretty violently and Amy was trying to catch as much as she could in one hand.

I was sitting about 10 rows behind her and I am embarrassed to say that my first thought was about a nickname my brothers and I had for this kind of event when we were kids – “upchucking.” There is a restaurant chain in Utah and Idaho with the unfortunate name of Chuck-A-Rama Buffet. It uses the western chuck wagon as its logo. We thought it was hilarious to refer to it as “Upchuck-A-Rama.” While I amused myself, others sprung into action.

Amy had only walked two rows up the aisle when Dixie, who was seated on the end of her row, held out a plastic King Soopers bag and handed it to Amy. Amy took the bag gratefully and held it up to her son’s mouth. A couple of women followed her to the restroom to help, while two men left the chapel as well. One of them returned with paper towels to clean up the mess, while the other brought back the baking soda from the church kitchen. Another mother soon took the rest of Amy’s children to join their brother and mother. Meanwhile, church continued as most people were unaware of the small drama that had just taken place.

I wondered afterwards why Dixie had a plastic grocery bag with her. She didn’t have small children. It’s unlikely she had done her grocery shopping before church and had brought the groceries in with her. Maybe all women carry a plastic bag with them just in case and men just don’t know about it. I called her a few days later to find out the story. It turns out that she was going to baby sit in the Church nursery after the Easter service and had candy for the kids in the bag.

It was a pretty miserable morning for Amy and her son. It might console her to know that I learned something from her experience. My personal philosophy on adversity can be summed up in two sentences: First, adversity is an inevitable part of life, so I might as well learn something from it. And second, I always prefer learning from someone else’s adversity rather than my own! Sorry Amy.

Life is often just like Amy’s morning. We plan to do something wonderful but something bad happens and gets in the way. The problem is all-consuming to us, but most people are unaware of our problem. Some see the crisis but aren’t sure what to do. Some see the crisis and have juvenile thoughts about a restaurant’s name. But some people act. They comfort us. They help us physically. They clean up after us. And if we are lucky, there will be someone on the aisle who has a spare plastic grocery bag when we need it the most.