Micro-justice...

Arthur can be a bit grumpy. Keeps himself to himself, always sits by himself – happy with his paper. Always polite - but in a grumpy kind of way.

Arthur went missing about a month ago. He always lets us know when he is not going to be at our luncheon club. So a couple of days without Arthur left us concerned. A few phone calls and we soon discover that a fall has left him in hospital with a broken leg. We visit and its not long before he explains that in his fall his glasses were broken. His opticians were not being helpful with his niece – could we help?

Can you believe how unhelpful people can be? A three-week battle of almost daily phone calls and visits to the opticians eventually ended up in the form of a pair of glasses. Excuses were fended off. Blatant inconsistencies challenged – we fought.

I’m the one who takes the glasses up to Arthur. I’m the one who sees the gratitude. I’m the one who sees the deep appreciation. The one who sees the relief, the smiles. I’m the one he grabs hold of and looks at me - his eyes suddenly larger through his new thick rimmed glasses. “Are they ok Arthur?” I enquire. “Are they ok…are they ok” he says in a ‘as if they wouldn’t be sort of way’ – a smile as large as a child’s on Christmas morning erupts across his face!

“Don’t s'pose you’ve got a paper…?”

I’ve been thinking about this. Justice is something we should be involved with as a church. The major ‘isms’ need challenging, need to be brought down. The major world injustices need to be highlighted and not tolerated. However it struck me that sometimes we can so caught up that the micro-justice issues slip under the radar.

Justice issues come in big and small packages.