Fancy Meeting You Here!

Who is that woman? I wondered, when I saw a familiar-looking face at the check-out counter as we entered the supermarket. I was sure I knew her, but I just couldn’t place her. From our old church? A visitor at our new church? Clerk at a store? Former hair dresser? These impressions raced through my mind from a mental check list as I wracked my brain.

“Oh, I remember!” I said aloud to my husband as we neared the back of the store. “She’s from the Bible study, BSF, where I used to go!” I hadn’t seen this member of my group since the local chapter of BSF closed more than a year and a half ago. “I wish I had gotten to speak to her!” I exclaimed. Then, as we were on our way to the front, I spotted her headed toward the exit.

“Hi!” I called, as she was about to go through the automatic double doors. She didn’t hear me, so I called a couple more times as I hurried toward the receding figure. She was halfway out, but suddenly she turned around. “Remember me? From…” I started to say, when she finished, “BSF! Hi!”

“You wrote a book!” she remembered, pointing at me in recognition.

“And you’re the one who went to Oberammergau for the Passion Play! I told my husband you were the one who travels!” I responded.

“Yes, I just got back from China only a couple of days ago!” she exclaimed. It was if we were long-lost friends. “I was reading in your book,” she said, “when I came across something, and I thought, Wait! That sounds like me!”

“About the valentine cakes? Yes, that was you!” I admitted. We laughed and I told her I had another book at the bookstore now. “Read it! There might be something else about you. I don’t remember,” I teased.

How good it was to meet her again! We had shared God’s Word, testimonies, prayer, tears and laughter during those days. It’s no wonder we felt a bond.

“I’m going to Hawaii in the Spring,” my friend announced. “My kids are taking me.”

“And I’ve been invited to go to France in the summer!” I replied, “I might go if I get up the nerve.”

Our son is going, again, and he offering his guide expertise to family members who might be interested. I told him I would prefer to go to Israel, so he said to get a passport; that might be arranged the next year! Who knows? Maybe I’ll meet someone I know over there. It’s a small world, and God’s people are everywhere, at home and abroad!