Shortly before Christmas, I was surprised to find myself home alone. My mind raced with possibilities for this rare & unexpected time. Not long after the phone rang, I realized this was no accident. I spent hours on the phone with a woman intent on taking her own life. Unable to gather any family contacts, I called EMS when we were briefly disconnected. With contact re-established, I remained on the phone with her until help arrived.
To my delight she called the next evening for directions to our Bible study, but my hopes dwindled as the evening came & went without her. Over a week passed before I learned what happened that night. On her way here, a secular holiday display brought up pain & shame from her youth. She returned to her house to swallow the bottle of pills that would end her life. Thankfully she survived & the Lord worked on me through my rage, enabling me to see the log in my own eye. While the neighbors "never put Christ in Christmas," my garden remained yet unadorned as I hadn't "felt ready" for the holidays. That near-fateful evening, she had been in plain sight of the empty space where my nativity should have been set. Someone I barely knew had come seeking the Lord, but found Him not. Once again, the finger I point toward others returns to me. My Saviour (& the woman) forgive me, yet I am reminded of the saying, "one never knows who is watching".
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