The Strangers Among Us

Dear Lady, three booths down:

Why are you crying? You’re in McDonalds, one of the happiest places on earth. Kids come here for the fun meals, after all. Old guys congregate for the sole purpose of swapping stories. Computer users run their businesses from these booths. Yet, there is no mistaking. You are crying, and the hurt runs deep. I can tell these things.

Your cell phone rings pretty regularly, and you take every call. But still the tears come. The people who call know you’re suffering. They may be experiencing the same pain. They may be lending moral support. But they know, either way.

Did a family member die? Are you going through a break-up or a job loss? It’s none of my business. Yet I can’t help but wonder about you. Worry about you.

I’m not as good as the Samaritan in Jesus’ parable. But I’m not as bad as the priest or the Levite either. Pity that Jesus didn’t mention the lady with the jug of water on her head. The one in the middle of the street. She’s more like me.

I hope our glances meet so my look can tell you that I understand pain, too. Sometimes it helps to know that someone in your midst is sensitive to your plight. But you don’t want anyone to notice you. You drop your head so your hair shrouds your face. You rub your forehead, back and forth, back and forth, to shield your eyes…from the dining room? From the world? From more pain than you can handle right now? Maybe it’s all three. You keep pushing your glasses up, though, in between forehead rubs, like you don’t want to miss anything.

People are interesting, aren’t they? Withdrawing from everything around them yet grasping for connection at the same time? I get it. I’ve been there.

I may never see you again. You may never know that your pain touched me. But God knows. He fully knows what you’re going through. He grieves right along with you.

Dear Lord, meet this woman in her pain. Bind her wounds. Apply the balm of your encouragement onto her battered spirit.

Touch the tongues of those she trusts. Purify their words of advice. Speak through them. Speak through them so that their words might raise her up. Might strengthen her.

Lord, this woman is going through her pain for a reason. Light the path toward your glory so that it’s easy for her to find. Would, Lord, that she find hope for a better tomorrow in you. Help her to know the source of her comfort. May she look back on this time and remember that you did not forsake her but, rather, led her through.

Look for the stranger the Lord has placed in your path today, the one whose needs are great. Never forget that God is greater. His throne is only a whisper away.

Enjoy your day. Enjoy this blog.