Light From Heaven (A Sacred Conversation with Danny)

My wife and I were traveling towards Virginia's coastline and decided to make a pit stop in Hampton, Virginia. We were following our GPS to find some food. As we sat at a traffic light near a shopping center, I saw a scene quite unlike any scene I've ever witnessed before.

Let me attempt to paint a picture of what I experienced...

A light rain was beginning to fall on our car windshield when I first saw him struggling to push himself in his wheelchair through the crosswalk. He was the most pitiful person I believe I have ever seen. Perhaps the fact that he was all alone made him appear even more pitiful.

His clothes were loosely-fitted and his body was obviously paralyzed except for his right arm. He eventually made it up onto the sidewalk just before the light turned from red to green. I slowly turned into the shopping center and with a pain of sorrow for the pitiful young man deep in my heart, I pulled passed him.

We parked in the lot next to a Panera Bread Restaurant and as we approached the entrance, I looked to see how far he was from where we were. He was still probably 300 yards or so away. I didn't feel free to approach him just yet. He looked so tired from the physical exertion he had just made to get from one side of the four-lane road to the other.

We went into the restaurant and placed an order to go. When we came out, there he was. He had parked his well-worn wheelchair and his weary body about 6 feet from the doorway where we exited. He was clutching a McDonald's paper cup in his hand. I looked in the cup as I leaned towards him and noticed about a dozen coins were at the bottom. I took a five-dollar-bill from my wallet and placed it in the cup. He smiled beautifully through his exceptionally, kind eyes. Then our sacred conversation began.

With hard-to-understand speech, he said, My name is Danny. I asked if he had cerebral palsy? He said, No. I was shot in the head by a relative. It pained my heart at the very depths. Noticing my pain for him, he followed up with these words, God allows everything to happen for a reason. He smiled again.

I asked, Do you know Jesus, Danny? Smiling still, he confidently replied, Yes, I do. Then he asked me a question: Do you believe in God? I assured him, I did. Then his questioning continued: Do you know the only thing in your house not made by man? I said, Danny, I'm not sure I know the answer to that question. You tell me, please. With a big grin, he answered: The light coming into your house through the windows. God made the light and placed it in your house. Yes, this seemingly most pitiful person I have probably ever seen inspired my soul with his light from Heaven sacred language. I was amazed and humbled.

I told Danny that I knew one day he would have a new body in Heaven and that when he got there to look for me, Kerry. He agreed with my words and promised he would indeed look for me There.

I told him that I lived in Harrisonburg on the other side of the Commonwealth. He said, You're a long way from home. After promising to pray for one another until we meet in Heaven, Danny and I embraced as brothers and went on our separate ways.

Later on that same evening in a message to a church member seeking prayer and encouragement, I sent these words: Today, God brought a young paralyzed man across my path. He gave me full perspective. He gave me God's light for today. God loves us!

This is how we’ve come to understand and experience love: Christ sacrificed His life for us. This is why we ought to live sacrificially for our fellow believers, and not just be out for ourselves. If you see some brother or sister in need and have the means to do something about it but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s love? It disappears. And you made it disappear.
-- 1 John 3:16-17 (MSG)

Almighty God...
Don't let the needs of others somehow become invisible to me.
Lord forbid, that I should make Your Love disappear.
In Jesus' Name. Amen.

Grateful