Everyone’s got a story. If you are with someone for any length of
time you begin to touch on their story.
Sometimes it just comes out, and then there are times you have to “read between
the lines”. Other times you can easily see
a person’s story peek out, like my daughter’s tale.
Little children will often ask Bella what
happened to her eye. A four year old girl
at the park approached my daughter and requested her immediate friendship last
week. Bella willingly became the little girl’s
playmate as they began climbing on the play equipment together. Every now and then the little girl would ask
her what happened to her eye. My
daughter is always ready for this question and sometimes she has fun with her
answer. “It was a freak spitball
accident.” “Oh, wow”, the little girl
said, and then ran off to play somewhere else.
The little girl would play and laugh for a bit until she was overcome
with curiosity and would ask Bella what happened to her eye again. Bella declared her one of the cutest girls
she had ever met. I was reminded again
that Bella wears her story for others to see.
But I know that most of our stories are not so obvious.
The playground at A.I. DuPont Children’s
Hospital is fast becoming one of my favorite places to sit and think. One can see children and families from all
over the world; European, Asian, Middle Eastern, African, and American walk
through the hospital playground. This
multicultural parade is so beautiful to me.
This is truly a unique place. It
is a place where everyone has a story to tell.
A
child doesn’t come to a place where there are world renowned specialists unless
they have some sort of difficulty. Some
children walk with canes or braces, some cannot walk at all, others have casts,
and still others are frail and thin. But
many of the children look just fine on the outside. Their story is hidden, like little Gracie’s
sister.
A beautiful young family sat down with me
at one of the picnic tables on the playground.
The mother sat with her 10 month old daughter while her husband ran after
their three year old Gracie. After a few
questions like how many children do you
have? and what do you think of the
hospital?, their story began to unfold. Their youngest daughter was born with
a hip displacement condition and so they sought out the best help they could
find. Their search led them to Dr.
Bowen, who wrote a book on the little girl’s deformity. Dr. Bowen is also Jackson’s doctor. The little girl is looking great and her
future is looking good. It was after meeting this little girl who shared
Jackson’s doctor that the words to one of Jackson’s favorite songs came to
my mind.
Jackson heard a song when he was 7 years
old that really impacted him. “Give me your eyes for just one second, give
me your eyes so I can see.” I
remember asking him why he liked the song, and he told me that he wanted to see
people that way, the way God sees them. God
was giving him a tender heart toward others.
We had no idea that just a week following his baptism, at 7 years old,
just how greatly our family would be impacted by pain. It was the week that Bella lost her sight in
her left eye. Jackson’s song took on a
whole new meaning. We were all drawn right
into my son's own prayer to see people in a whole new way.
I have been learning to slow down when I
meet people, to look and listen to people more intently. I am learning to walk a little of their own
path with them. It is in our weaknesses that many of us find strength. None of
us are fit enough. We are all
flawed. Our flaws are a part of our
stories. Each life has value because of
the precious story that it tells. Even a
newborn baby has a story – like my nephew, who came into this world just fine,
beating all the odds of surviving an umbilical chord that was knotted 4 times. Levi’s life tells a story even now, as an
infant. We all stop and take notice
because his story causes us to marvel at the gift of life.
Affirming another’s worth can be as simple
as listening to their story. Or like one
child wrote at the A. I. DuPont Hospital, “Just smiling at someone can make a
person’s day.” By looking for other people’s
stories we can learn how to care more deeply for people. Many stories translate to prayer for me. How can I pray for this person? Where is God working here? And as I look for more stories, I find myself
praying for more people. It is becoming
a natural overflow. I am taking their
stories to Jesus.
As I am praying for people, it humbles me.
I am reminded to never assume that I have a person all figured out. Little Gracie’s sister looked just fine, but as
her Momma carefully placed her x-ray on top of the stroller, the little girl’s
story became more real to me. This
Christmas she will celebrate her first birthday, and maybe, just maybe, she
will walk on Christmas Day.
Our stories make us who we are; the good,
the hard, the painful, and even those things we don’t want to remember, they
are a part of the stories we are living.
And living is what we were meant to do.
~Your Fellow
Sojourner
Looked down from a broken sky
Traced out by the city lights
My world from a mile high
Best seat in the house tonight
Touched down on the cold black top
Hold on for the sudden stop
Breath in the familiar shock
Of confusion and chaos
All those people going somewhere,
Why have I never cared?
Give me your eyes for just one second
Give me your eyes so I can see
Everything that I keep missing
Give me your love for humanity
Give me your arms for the broken hearted
Ones that are far beyond my reach.
Give me your heart for the ones forgotten
Give me your eyes so I can see
See a girl and our eyes meet
Does her best to smile at me
To hide what's underneath
There's a man just to her right
Black suit and a bright red tie
Too ashamed to tell his wife
He's out of work
He's buying time
All those people going somewhere
Why have I never cared?
A couple of million eyes
Just moving past me by
I swear I never thought that I was wrong
Well I want a second glance
So give me a second chance
To see the way you see the people all along
What is going on here?!
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