REFLECTIONS ON FAITH &
LIFE FOR THE YEARS OF WINTER
As old people must do, I
have been trying to clear out extraneous stuff so that our daughters will not
have to do it later. In the process I came across a “journal” that I kept in
the 1970s. It doesn’t look like a journal, just a yellow tablet, at the back of
a file drawer, and I didn’t even know it was there. I had forgotten almost all
of the events it chronicles. Here is one entry.,,
A
girl of 20 came today, with her mother and a baby. She claimed the child was
her sister. They wanted me to find a family for the baby to stay with that
would be close to where the “big sister” must work. But why didn’t the mother
say anything? It was the 20 year old, not the 45, who did the talking. Finally,
it was “big sister” who broke into gentle, desperate sobs.
Hers I knew was the old, old story. She was a “good”
girl. She loved the boy. He backed out. She couldn’t stand to give her baby for
adoption, so now… a little sister… close by… it was the best she could do.
I knew she was a “good girl.” Bad girls don’t get
pregnant. They know how to avoid that one little handicap. How many times I’ve
felt like saying, “At least be smart.” But by the time they come to me, it’s
usually too late.
She cried some more as she told me how many agencies, how
many professionals who, supposedly, are in the “helping” professions, had
refused even to consider her needs. And so, I said I’d try, knowing I couldn’t
do anything either.
Yet
within four hours, she was sitting in the living room of the family she needed,
thinking I was a miracle worker. I’ve pulled off two [1] “miracles” within a
week now—all by accident. But you can’t explain how it’s all accidental; that
sounds like false modesty in search of greater praise.
Maybe that’s what a miracle is—just being there, so that
accidents can happen to you, and people’s needs are met. Of course, the more
needs that get met, the more accidents happen, and…
JRMcF
1] I have no idea what the
other “miracle” was.
Buy Katie Kennedy’s What Goes Up! You’ll regret it if you
don’t. Bound to be your new favorite book, and just out in paperback. “Buy two;
they’re cheap.” Give someone a copy; they’ll thank you.
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