Wednesday, September 20, 2006

My dear God,

Everywhere I turned today you were standing. I drove to Wishard Hospital to be with a member of my parish who was facing cancer surgery. As I walked into the small surgery holding room, her beautiful brown face smiled back at me. The same age as me but with life experiences in her homeland of Africa that I cannot begin to conceive, she may be fighting for her life from a disease that was diagnosed back in June.

I took her hand in mine. "Mami." I called her by the name I was called in Africa where I went to volunteer nearly a year ago. An expression of respect and affection I wanted to be more than her pastor in her current trial.

I asked lots of questions about her family. And she told me that due to fighting she had many family members still stuck in refugee camps in Liberia and Ghana. She had not only given birth to nine children, she had taken in her husband's six other children, raising them as her own. When we talked about the cancer, she spoke the words familiar to me when I was in Africa. "I trust in God."

When her daughter arrived a short time before they took her to surgery we greeted one another and prayed for this mother. Before they rolled her away the daughter reinforced her faith. "Trust in God."

The daughter and I spent several hours together since the surgery turned out to be longer than expected. We ate breakfast and I continued to witness the face of Jesus looking back at me as she spoke of her trust in the Almighty. Exhausted from working two jobs back to back to make ends meet, I pulled up a comfy lounge chair, put my raincoat over her and encouraged her to sleep. She dropped off within minutes.

I studied the face of faith, one who has seen death and destruction of civil war in Africa, one who watched rebels murder her uncle right next to her, who held her child as he lay dying without simple antibiotics in a refugee camp, one whose family was separated and had to leave her home and all her possessions behind. Yet, she still knows and claims faith in Christ, a child-like sweetness of trust in God who daily guides her in hope.

After the surgeon returned reporting on the surgery, I left for a doctor's appointment. It was a pretty day so I walked. When I sat down in the physician's office, I turned and saw a woman whom I had not seen from my church in a long time. We hugged and talked before I was called in. Feeling badly because she had not been to worship, the older woman assured me, "I pray every day. I'm just so tired by the weekend." "Isn't it wonderful that God loves us no matter what we are doing!" I told her. She smiled. When I returned to the waiting room, she was gone but the faded image of her beaming face lingered.

As I left the hospital and walked down the walkway, a car passed by me. The driver looked familiar. I turned around to view the license plate from northern Indiana. Convinced it was a friend, a member of a former church whom I had not seen in years, I turned around to walk back. At that moment his wife exited from the hospital and I shouted her name, not wanting them to drive off without a greeting. When I got up to the car, she kissed and hugged me so happy to see me. Because we were holding up five cars, I suggested we drive to my car where we could talk for 15 minutes before they had to leave to get back to waiting grandchildren.

In order to say everything we wanted to say in a short time, I named off their children and siblings. I asked about their health and then the church where I had served. They reported. Then I shared mine. In 15 minutes I crawled out the car as they drove away, smiling.

Both their children are in trouble. One continues to be abused by her husband. Although they are in their 60's they have guardianship of their three grandchildren. Their son is troubled, can't keep a job, sees nothing positive in life. The wife's sister just lost her husband to cancer and her older son recently committed suicide. Her younger son was just returned back to prison. With all this sorrow and grief one could expect dour faces and even more sour looks at life. But not this couple. "Isn't God good?" She told me. "He never disappoints us. He is always with us in every situation!" Their faith is strong. Yes, they are very concerned about their family but they trust God to help.

As I drove to my office late in the afternoon I reflected upon the faces of trust and faith, the many ways I saw God gazing back at me. I remembered all the smiles throughout the day of perfect strangers who gave me directions or helped me. Just like when I called my doctor's office to ask if I could come late because I was with a family at the hospital, she guaranteed me that I would be seen and that she would pray for the family. Another stranger praying for an unknown person.

I saw the face of God
looking back at me today,
black, brown, white and yellow.
And it was beautiful.

Love always, Andrea