“Julie, you can’t believe this. My mom said there is a woman eating out of the garbage behind the government hospital. She has three small children. Her husband died. She has no home. Every night she goes to another house looking for a floor to sleep on. She is paralyzed on one half of her body…” My friend Biruk erupted with concern and compassion.
I stood somewhat stunned. Deeply in pain and begging God for help. He gave me his eyes from above…this is what I saw. I saw a picture of a woman, unknown to me…but known by God. As I looked down upon this woman from up above, I could see her struggling to survive, struggling to feed her children. She was small, but significant. She was fighting and wrestling for the life of her children, the life God had given her. God showed me that HE HAD NOT FORGOTTEN HER.
HE SAW HER. HE KNEW HER. HE CALLED HER BY NAME.
HER NAME WAS WRITTEN ON HIS HAND. HE LOVED HER.
And I was appointed to her. And she to me.
The first time I met Ayelech, she couldn’t stop kissing me and blessing me and hugging me. I loved her instantly. Her spirit is one of the most beautiful. She is humble and gracious and dependent on Jesus. He was literally all she had over the past two years.
When she received a bed and a blanket, she wept, lifted her hands to heaven and said, “How did I receive this? I am nothing…why would God bless me in this way?”
This week we sat outside the hospital after another round of all day visits for her and she told me through my friend, Meles, that she was so grateful. “God had not forgotten me. Even when I thought he wasn’t in Heaven, HE WAS STILL IN HEAVEN. He still saw me.”
My heart filled so full as I shared with her that God has shown me that about her from the first time I heard her story. We have both been redeemed from a pit, of sin and helplessness. I look at her every week and think, ‘I am no different.’ Without the grace and mercy of God, we would all be hopeless and in a place of complete brokenness..digging through garbages and pain just to survive. Her life has helped me sing a new song of redemption…I pray as you read and think of her, her life would cause you to SEE the Lord, to SING and to TRUST in Him even more…
I waited patiently for the Lord; he inclined to me and heard my cry. He drew me up from the pit of destruction, out of the miry bog, and set my feet upon a rock, making my steps secure. He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord.Psalm 40:1-3
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