Strangers

She was standing on the sidewalk outside of Goodwill. I could see her small, hunched shoulders half hidden under gorgeous thick hair as I followed my family out of the store. A little child stood beside her, silently playing with a pinecone, and I wondered at the fearful silence of the little one.

And something about the scene tugged on my heart before I even stepped outside Goodwill. As I followed my family down the sidewalk and opened the car door, I looked over my shoulder once more. At the same moment, she tossed her gorgeous thick hair over her shoulder and glanced in my direction – and I caught my breath. I have never before, never since seen a person with such hopelessness in their eyes as in hers.

I wanted to run back and give her a hug. I wanted to find a home, a family, friends for her. I wanted to give her money, food, something that would help.

But I didn’t. I got in the car and my family drove off to Olive Garden…

*****

He came out of his hotel door just as my friend and I passed in the hall. It was the Generation of Youth for Christ convention in Portland, and my friend and I had been up until late, singing, praying, our hearts journeying heavenward with four thousand others. We had just gotten back to our hotel room on the 11th floor of the Hyatt when my friend realized that she had lost the memory card for her camera.

And so we began retracing our steps down the hotel hallway. Halfway down the second hall, he opened his door and stepped out into the hall right behind us.

And that, just there, is where we found the memory card.

He looked as he passed us in the hall, and, seeing, commented, “Wow, you’re sure lucky!”

My friend shouted, “No, God is good! Praise the Lord! Thank You, Jesus!”

He didn’t respond, but from the way he walked away I could almost hear him pondering that: Really? Does God really exist? Could it be? As my friend and I turned to head back to our hotel room, I glanced back one more time and watched him disappear around the corner…

*****

I think of you often. You only graced my life for a split second. And yet, the image of you is etched along the corridors of my memory. And the memory makes me wonder…

Did I, in that moment, show you Jesus?

Will I see you in Heaven?

“You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. …Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.”

Matthew 5:14, 16