“Please God, Help Her”

It was a small blue car that pulled along side me at a random stoplight next to a railroad crossing sign.  I don’t remember much about its make or year  but I do remember the driver.  She was in her mid-twenties – her brown hair pulled up in a bun with wisps that exploded from the middle like a fourth of July firework. At four in the afternoon, it looked like she had just rolled out of bed.

She was on the phone.  Momentary bursts of anger played out in hitting the stirring wheel, occasionally lifting her left hand – palm up – and briefly hiding an ever increasing tearing with a quick wipe.

I felt sorry for her.  Maybe she was talking to the IRS.  Maybe she was trying to figure out her student loan consolidation.  Most likely, she was trying to verbally glue together the tattered fragments of a once love relationship.

Again, I felt sorry for her.  I wanted to help.  But the time was short.  Green was coming.  So I asked the One I knew could do what I couldn’t.  No big speech of prayer with large churchy words.  I simply said, “Please God, help her.”  That’s what it means to love all people.  If you can’t do anything, ask the One who can.  When the light changed, she went right, I went left.  But neither of us went alone.  In the midst of our deepest hurt, the One is always there.

So maybe you are the girl in the blue car.  Maybe you are the one I saw yesterday at the stop sign of hope and pain.  If you are, just remember that there are people whom you don’t know, who love you and pray for you.

Now, my light is green.

Peace!