You are probably asking, ‘What is she talking about?’ My ‘God kisses’ are a very unusual and favorable event or response that would only happen in a million years… maybe. It catches our attention because the event is so unique and it is so joyful.
This happened to me last night in JFK airport in New York City. This huge international airport exchanges about a million people arriving and departing every twenty-four hours. (Not official data, please.) It happened to me while waiting at my gate for close to five hours. If you travel often, you know what it is like to w-a-i-t until you want to scream!
My traveling companions consisted of my nephew with a leg cast, my husband, my daughter and yours truly. We were exhausted because ours was only a 24 hour trip to the Big Apple for family business. We were finally on our way home to our familiar beds. Ahhhh!
This is how the God Kiss began.
We were at the last gate at the far end of the Jet Blue terminal in JFK and my husband noticed about four seat away, a mother lovingly concerned about her daughter who felt ill. My husband asked the mother if he could pray for her daughter to feel better and she agreed. A few minutes later, her mom walked over to where I was seated and I commented on her beautiful tunic which seemed hand embroidered. She said she had done the handy work on the tunic and as an artist, I was so impressed. Then my daughter made a comment that I did a lot of creative things too, and began to tell her that I was an artist and an art teacher. I shared some of my art work on my iPhone and gave her my business card for this web site. Now it gets really interesting!
The woman and her daughters and her sister and nephew were going to Orlando to visit family. They were from Pakistan. Her english was impeccable. She was also an art teacher in her native country. We were both astounded to be seated just 4 seats apart waiting to board a late flight, out of thousands of departures in this vast airport terminal. We did what was natural for new friends. We exchanged names (I will call her Shemah’ to preserve her identity). Next we agreed to share art lesson plans and continue to communicate when they got back to Pakistan.
I instantly loved this woman like a sister and knew it was God’s love poured into me. We shared how people stereotype those from other cultures when we actually we are so individually different from their ideas of who we are perceived to be. Really? Yes. Americans and Christians also suffer this same kind of bigotry world wide. Shemah’ is a Muslim. I am a Christian. We both know what bigotry is first hand. Yet, there was no enmity between us. There was love. We agreed all we wanted was PEACE to raise our children safely. I asked Shemah to show me how to write ‘Have peace’ in Arabic so that I could inscribe it into a painting I was doing.
So according to God’s plan, I entered this huge New York City airport, exhausted from a 24 hour round trip to wait hours for a departure time that was moved up because of a late arriving flight, so that God could give me more time to make a friend and bring me joy after grieving at my sister-in law’s funeral. It did not matter how different Shemah and I worshipped, because we both shared common experiences. She trusted us enough, caring much for her daughter, to let my husband pray for her. When we disembarked in Orlando, the young girl seemed better.
We both hated that we are cast into a role by others that is unfairly generalizing and untrue! Yes, shemah’ became a sister to me, bound by a common vocation and negative experiences due to the bigotry of others. Yet, God did this to teach us both about His LOVE. All the glory goes to Him. Thank you Lord for this new joy in the midst of our sorrow! You are so good!