I almost left with the book still in my bag.
I'd packed it Tuesday morning for a colleague going through a major illness, a book about God's original design for the mind, how it fell out of harmony with Him, and His plan for restoring it. A full morning of appointments meant I never made it back to my office to drop it off, so it rode along with me to my own doctor's appointment instead.
The nurse assistant who checked me in was warm, easy to talk to. Midway through our small talk, I had the thought: give her the book. I even planned to write a note inside the cover. I'd seen her name on the screen.
By the time my appointment ended, I'd talked myself out of it. Not worth signing it, I decided. I headed for the exit, glancing around for her, but she was nowhere in sight. I nearly walked out. Instead, on a whim, I stopped at the front desk to ask if there was anything else I needed before leaving.
I knocked at the window. No response...the nurse there was distracted with something else. I circled around, and a different receptionist offered to help. Just checking out, I told her. She offered to print a visit summary...something I almost always decline, since an app already gives me everything I need. This time, for no particular reason, I said yes.
As she handed me the printout, I had one more chance to decide: give the book to her, or keep waiting for the nurse assistant it was "meant for."
Instead, I just told her I had a gift for her.
She took it gladly, and then her eyes changed as she read part of the title. She told me, briefly, that her family had suffered a devastating loss recently, and that she needed exactly this kind of healing for her mind and her heart. She came back around the desk to hug me. My heart melted right there.
"This book has been a real blessing to me," I told her. "I know it will be for you too."
I smiled the whole way home. For the rest of the day, my mind kept circling the same questions: What if I hadn't packed the book that morning? What if I'd walked out those first two times I almost did? What if my whole schedule had been rearranged...not around my plans, but around this one conversation someone needed to have?
I know what it is to need a moment like that. A single moment was the turning point that started my own healing, once.
Jesus once took a route He didn't need to take...through Samaria, at exactly the hour one woman would be alone at a well, for a conversation that changed her whole life (John 4:1–26). He wasn't wandering. He was headed somewhere with a plan, the same as I was that Tuesday.
And still, one person was worth the detour.
Join me in praying for this woman I met for five minutes, that she finds the healing she needs. And maybe let this be the nudge to prepare for your own version of that moment, you rarely see it coming, and it rarely announces itself as anything more than an ordinary Tuesday.
Until next time,
Michelle
Explore more from Everyday Life →
See More Clearly.