Today, while walking to a meeting I passed one of the cleaning ladies in the hallway. She was sitting on a bench talking to someone on the phone. She was weeping. She spoke Spanish into the phone and the words, although I did not understand them, seeped out grief and sorrow. You could cut it with a knife. The intensity of the grief and her sobs touched my soul. In that brief moment of me passing by, I felt burdened with her grief and compelled to assist her. I wanted to hug her, perhaps I should have, but she was speaking intently into the phone and I did not want to invade her privacy.
So I prayed for her as I continued on my way. Her face, the emotion poured out into those unknown words stick with me as I go, stick with me through the meeting and as at last I tear myself away, and walk back down that long hallway, I hope to see her, to somehow communicate to her that I felt her grief, her sorrow, and that I cared.
She was gone, had moved on to some other area requiring her attention. I find her face still haunts me, and I can still feel the intensity of the emotion as she cried out into that phone.
She was one of the often unseen, the hard working people who clean up after everyone else, how many people walk past her each day and fail to even speak or smile or acknowledge her presence, for she is often seen as part of the fixtures, perhaps even I have walked past her and not noticed her, not seen her. Today I saw her, her face as she wept her hands as they tightly gripped the phone. I saw her. Perhaps I have passed her countless times, and I probably smiled at her, said good morning, or good afternoon, maybe even held a door open for her so she could get her cart through without struggling….but in all these times I had not really SEEN her.
Lord, today I saw her, and my heart hurts for her, hurts for her grief. I wonder how many people we fail to see each day? Lord open my eyes, open my heart to the needs around me, to the hurt around me. Help me to see, heal my blind eyes and give me sight that I might never miss an opportunity to meet someone in their sorrow, even if it is just a prayer.
Lord bless this woman, ease her burden, I know not what is afflicting her so but the sorrow was raw, the pain real.
Friends, join me in praying for this lady, that she might find comfort and peace in the midst of her trial.