Sometimes we just need someone to love on us. Someone to be there, to tell us that we’re ok. Someone to give to us or do for us the unexpected. Someone to see us and in that moment, show us that we matter.
Last week Scott took a friend and his wife to a hospital across the border in Malawi. She’d been sick for many many months, progressively becoming more housebound and unresponsive. We’re not doctors and are completely unqualified to ‘diagnose’ anything – but after them getting little assistance locally due to lack of resources, we decided we could take her to a better hospital and seek further testing. So off to Malawi, in the pouring rain, they went.
Someone cared enough to take her in the car to another hospital to try and find answers.
The doctor met them there when they arrived, having been lined up by our good friends who have been many times before. He spoke gently to the woman, wanting to hear her story and not simply talking over her to her husband. They did what tests they could – power outages and broken machines made it a little more lengthy and difficult than hoped. Then another doctor talked again with the woman, privately, sensitively.
Someone showed her love and wanted to hear her story. They treated her as important, a woman not a child.
After leaving the hospital they were hungry, it now being afternoon and them not having eaten since 5am. They stopped at a small roadside restaurant for some food. The woman hadn’t been eating much at home, but at the restaurant she ate.
Someone provided for her immediate needs.
Calling in at other good friends of ours on the way home, the woman was looked after, talked to, prayed for.
Someone noticed her. Someone shared that God too noticed her, loved her, cared about her needs.
On the way home, Scott noticed that the woman talked a little more to him. Smiled a few times. Even gave a small laugh.
Sometimes we just need someone to love on us. Someone to be there, to tell us that we’re ok. Someone to give to us or do for us the unexpected. Someone to see us and in that moment, show us that we matter. Jesus noticed people, he loved people. Jesus notices us, he loves us, he meets us in places and ways that no one can.
We’re not God but we can show who He is to others.
How could we do any less than love on others?