Kindness

"The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, shriveled his cheek, stiffened his gait; made his eyes red, his thin lips blue; and spoke out shrewdly in his grating voice. A frosty rime was on his head, and on his eyebrows, and his wiry chin. He carried his own low temperature always about him; he iced his office in the dog-days; and didn't thaw it one degree at Christmas.

External heat and cold had little influence on Scrooge. No warmth cold warm, nor wintry weather chill him. No wind that blew was bitterer than he, no falling snow was more intent upon its purpose, no pelting rain less open to entreaty.
Nobody ever stopped him in the street to say, with gladsome looks, "My dear Scrooge, how are you? When will you come to see me?" No beggars implored him to bestow a trifle, no children asked him what it was o'clock, no man or woman ever once in all his life inquired the way to such and such a place, of Scrooge. Even the blindmen's dogs appeared to know him; and when they saw him coming on, would tug their owners into doorways and up courts; and then would wag their tails as though they said, "no eye at all is better than an evil eye, dark master!"

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

"And they made their hearts like flint so that they could not hear the law and the words which the Lord of hosts had sent by His Spirit through the former prophets; therefore great wrath came from the Lord of hosts."

Zechariah 7:12

"...being darkened in their understanding, excluded from the life of God, because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the hardness of their hearts; and they, having become callous..."

Ephesians 4:18-19

"For the heart of this people has become dull, and with their ears they scarcely hear, and they have closed their eyes;"

Isaiah as quoted in Acts 28:27


Darkened, calloused, hardened, dulled hearts. We know these people. There are examples from works of fiction, from Holy Scripture, from next door.

And, of course, we know when we do something, say something, see something that darkens our hearts. We are smart like that. There is a moment when we know.

Kindness is an interesting attribute because of its power over the receiver. It seems that it is necessary for the hard hearted to be softened prior to a pricking that leads to God. Kindness does that, and most likely in an unseen way. Maybe like this. When traveling to higher altitudes, like Colorado for a ski trip, you pack your tube of lotion. When you arrive checking your little diddy bag for your lotion to beat back the dry mountain air, you take it out, turn the cap, and are squirted with the lotion. Perhaps you opened your bag and saw that the explosion had already occurred, maybe around Walsenburg. Pressure had been building up, making its hidden presence known only when it could stand it no more. I think that is what kindness does to the calloused heart. The acts lavished upon a hard heart has a softening effect. Soft hearts are required for repentance. Soft hearts are required for confession. Soft hearts are necessary for compassion. For empathy.

Tonight we strolled a street and sang Christmas carols, and it felt good to do so. I wonder if any hearts were softened not by our, or certainly my, great singing, but by our picking their house, stopping and gathering by their front door step. I wonder if any of those who came to the front porch to listen were dulled. I think it might have been a sweet sound and have a tendering effect to a hard heart.