500 Days
Our team had three consecutive days of flights canceled. It was not frustrating because we looked for the good and filled these days meeting people. These three days were filled with divine appointments. I have learned not to get up tight or fretful but walk through the doors that open.
It was during the three day pause in our travels that we met a woman who taught us all about life and death. Her name is Hawila and she was the mother to Gloria. Gloria was born with a major birth defects that resulted in her severe disfiguring. She had no skull on the upper half of her head. She had what looked like a sack holding her brain, no left arm, the mouth and nasal openings were just holes. In spite of all these problems she was clean and was age appropriate in every other way. It was the peacefulness of the home that first struck all of us. Hawila told us how she was told Gloria would not live four days and she should just let her die. We got a lesson in real hope as she told us how she would not give up on her and that even though she had major problems she was still her child. I came back to the U.S. and sought to find an open door to help her with her medical challenges. The reality was she was so badly deformed that the prospects of helping her was a reaal long shot. It would take a team of doctors to help her and that team could no be assembled. I was careful not to give Hawila and her family false hope but we prayed for God’s will to be done. I had a doctor on the last team and my hope was he would help with a medical opinion on the chances of her getting treatment.
I got word before our team left that Gloria caught a bad cold/flu and never recovered. She died on January 12th. My heart sunk as I knew we had run out of time. We had looked for doors to open here on earth but now the doors to the glories of heaven had now opened for her.
I wanted to spend some time with Hawila and her husband when I got to Indonesia. They were able to join our team for dinner one night. I greeted them as they came in the restaurant–we shed some tears together. Little did I know I was in for another lesson-it was a seed planted in the disappointment of the loss of this child. Hawila looked at me and said, ” God gave us Gloria for 500 days”. How many times do people blame or lash out in the numbing pain of the loss of a loved one. These words seemed to cut through all the moments they had their hopes dashed or just prayed for the doors to open. She showed us what gratitude looks like. She did not lay a charge at the feet of God or show anger that the doors did not open as we had hoped. It was contentment with tears. Oh–how I want to let that sink into my being. We are reminded that every life has meaning even if it is here for only 500 days.