Free Hugs!!

[Tony]As a result of a change in my scheduled work hours at the airport, I am now on day four of six days in a row off. For those of you who know me, you probably can imagine how badly I needed this break. Since last Thursday evening, my time off has been a blessing of God as I have been able to find deep restoration of my body and my heart.
On Thursday, while at work, my friend Nick and I watched a video on youtube.com about a guy who walked around a city holding a sign that read “Free Hugs”. The images in the video were beautiful. The implications were deep and breathed hope and love. With two words, actions were able to speak volumes of healing and love that our world thirsts desperately for from each other. Nick and I decided that this was something we needed to try. We were already advocates of free hugs there on the ramp with our co-workers (which is an interesting endeavor when you consider that there are two female rampers and thirty-some mostly homophobic manly men rampers). On Friday afternoon, Andrew Holmquist, Ryan Nyquist and myself were sitting in the living room at Ekklesiah, hanging out and enjoying our day off when the idea popped into my head. After surprisingly little deliberation, the three of us were on our way to Target for posterboard and markers. Not long after, we were walking up the steps of the capital holding “Free Hugs” signs above our heads. Ryan ran up the hill before us while Andrew and I walked up just in time to see a mass of people running down the steps to Ryan. A group of German exchange students were at the capital for a tour and as they came outside, Ryan was in prime position for an ambush an of hugs. Throughout the afternoon, the three of us walked around downtown St. Paul, loving people openly and without agenda or cost. Some people looked down and walked directly away from us. Many others hugged us as if we were close friends. Some hugged us quietly, some ran across streets and intersection screaming “I want a hug!!” The three of us split up for most of the afternoon and then reconvened at certain times to talk about what had happened. The stories were beautiful and many. It seemed like each hug was a story. We told and heard stories of words of a deep need to be loved: “so many hugs today come with a price” (how true!). We told each other about how there were certain people who you could tell just needed, I mean really needed, a hug from anybody. People wanted to take pictures everywhere. Over and over again we found that we were being asked “why are you doing this?” Our responses kind of surprised both them and us: “because you needed a hug,” “because love wins,” “because everyone needs to be loved,” “because god has loved us so that we can love each other,” “its all about Jesus,” “to do something beautiful for someone else.”
Above all, I have stories from this that I will tell for a long time. I know I will do this again. I learned that even the smallest gesture of love can be received with profound implications. I learned that so many people long to be embraced for who they are. So many people need to be loved by anybody, or maybe by everybody.