I left work on Tuesday night the same way I always do…at the same time. However my venture home on this night took a slight turn and it still has me replaying it over and over in my mind.
I left work, caught up in my own head with the days events and worries that seem to cloud my already overly active mind. I made a right at the local Weis Market grocery store and that is when I saw her.
Gypsy girl.
She was walking towards the end of the median with a kitten in her arms and a cardboard sign that I could not read. She was dressed in a long flowing skirt and dreadlocks and looked like she just got back from Woodstock. No bags with her- just a kitten on a leash and a look in her eyes of sadness. She couldn’t have been more than 19. Immediately I wondered how she got here to where she was.
Did she not have a family who loved her and wanted her? Did she not see eye to eye with her family and decided that she could do better on her own? Did she think she had the world by the tail and now it was too late to turn back? Perhaps she fell in love with a boy who stole all her childhood dreams…maybe he used her then left her with nothing. Maybe she never heard of the One who knit her together in her mothers womb…or counts all the hairs on her head.
I was in the midst of traffic so I could not pull off to the side – I had to continue in the line of traffic up the hill. The light turned red and I watched her from my side mirror. A truck driver stopped at the light at the bottom of the hill….must have offered her some money…she ran over than ran back. All the while as I am watching this transpire I feel a gentle nudging that said:
“Go Back”.
My response was “But I have to turn left”
“Go back”
I made the left at the green light, traveled about a mile to my husbands place of business. After discussing what this was he told me to go back if I felt I needed to. Just see what the sign said and maybe give her a fresh bottle of water and a little bit of cash. I went back but I couldn’t find her…anywhere. I turned into the Weis parking lot scanning all the cubbyholes and places that one might use for shelter. I slowly drove around the entire building.
She was gone.
My heart sank. I had failed. Failed to react immediately to a nudging that could not be explained with “mans eyes”. And for the rest of the night I said silent prayers for that girl. That she would come to know the fullness of God’s love and find shelter in her storm of life.
I woke up on Wednesday and she was still on my mind. I searched for her as I drove to work keeping my eyes peeled for her. I am not sure what I was going to say or do if I found her but I searched anyway. Perhaps subconsciously I wanted to right my wrong of not following His prompting from the get go. I still don’t know what it was all about.
I got to work and then I heard the rest of the story…the flip side.
I settled in and got things caught up and then I called my best friend who sits just over the cubicle wall. I know she normally travels the same way home from work as I do so I asked her if she went right or left out of the parking lot that night.
She informed me that she turned left cause she had errands to run but had to turn around and go to Wal-Mart (which is right across the highway from Weis). Then she asked the question..
“Did you see the Gypsy’s?”
I froze.
“You mean there was more than one?”
She went on to tell me that when she pulled into the Wal-Mart parking lot she noticed a school bus parked (hidden from view from the highway) stategically against the retaining wall. The bus was painted over to look like something from the 60’s with peace signs everywhere and it was filled with a ton of junk. She said there must have been 15 of them-mostly girls with two older men. All of them had either a dog or a cat with them. No doubt to tug on the heartstrings of animal lovers. The man “in charge” appeared to be a scruffy looking man in his late 50’s. Apparently the girls would go out to panhandle by themselves so not to draw attention to the group of them. My girlfriend said it reminded her of the people that followed the guy down in Waco Texas.
Right there my mouth dropped and my heart sank. Immediately I questioned whether the nudging I felt was from God or was I just being duped. I must admit a little bit of anger rose up in me as I saw this as just one more instance where people would rather beg and steal than to get an honest job and work for a living like the rest of humanity does.
Then I was reminded. BFF told me that even if I would have found the girl that I went back to find, whatever I would have done for her would have been done from a pure heart. A heart that longed to follow the leading of her Lord. Perhaps there was a reason why I didn’t find her. Perhaps it was a test to see if I really would go back. I don’t know.
What I do know is there is still a girl out there (and many more like her) that are thrown into things and places in this life that most of us have never seen or thought about. Deep down I am sure they have the same longings that we all do…to be loved and accepted. Sad part is many don’t know about the One man (the only Holy man) that they can run to.
It’s up to us to show them He’s different .
Would you please join me in prayer for these girls today?
