Urgent Care

The Lord works in mysterious ways; that is a true statement if ever there was one. And sometimes His ways involve using very subtle means to show us something about Himself - or about others.

I teach as a profession. And I see every day about 150 kids. Because there are so many and because there is so little time, it is very difficult, nearly impossible, to be an integral part of their lives. I know that probably the most I can do for them is to be an example, to be a little imperfect Christ. Hopefully, they will see Him in me.

But sometimes, I believe, the Lord chooses special people to be ministered to, or to minister to you, in deeper ways.

I found myself at 11.30 one night last April ready to hit the hotel sack after a long day climbing over miles of volcanic rock to see lava flows. The thirty plus of us in our group were all sore, some bleeding from cuts taken on the grueling trip.

But one of our students, not exactly obeying the rule that said to wear covered shoes, and certainly not obeying the unwritten law about not messing around on the broken-glass-sharp lava, was cut up pretty badly.

Badly enough that one of the chaperones, a nurse, said that she probably had to be taken to the hospital to sew her up.

That was news I did not want to hear.

Now I've known this girl for a couple years and although she was perky enough, I was almost expecting her to do something like this. So in my mind I was already upset with her because now I would have to stay up all stinking night to take her to some bonehead emergency room that I wouldn't have had to do if she had just been good!!!

The Lord, who is more concerned with souls than sleep, had a different view of things, and different plans for me.

And when I saw her cut and bleeding, and heard a parent's less-than-care-filled response on the phone, the Lord helped me see for the first time a girl who needed help and not a hand slap, someone who needed a servant, not a master, someone who needed comfort, not distress. I wasn't looking to be that someone, I wasn't looking to change; it just happened.

And that trip to Urgent Care was the best thing that happened to me on that trip. That mysterious and loving King of ours helped me see her with His eyes for once, not with my own myopic, nearly blind orbs. I began to see her as the complex, bright, witty, sometimes foolish, deep, young woman she really is.

She helped me more than she knows. The Lord, through that early morning trip to an emergency room, showed me a young adult who was always there but whom I was too busy or blind to notice - shame on me.

Now she's one of my favorite students. My family - and dog - all love her. And with a heart of gold, she's a pure delight to be around. How many kids have I missed over the years because I didn't take time to get to know them? How many others outside of school have I not taken the time to see with the eyes of God? Have I blown set ups like this before? How many? Don't want to think about all that now to be honest.

It was a Divine Ambush it was, but I am so thankful to Him for it, thankful that He still works in mysterious ways. I hope I get ambushed again and again until it is my nature to see my students with His eyes, to see them all in their complexities with their unique personalities and semi-dysfunctional behaviours - as much I can in this finite body anyway.

That one night at Urgent Care didn't just patch up a leg, it helped give me sight.