Earlier this week I locked my keys in my office. It was late—I’d
worked till about seven, and it was until I was outside in the single-digit
temperatures and blowing wind that I realized my problem. I went back inside to
check my door to see if maybe someone with a key was still there. But the
landlord was gone, as well as the lawyer who I knew had a master key.
But there was one man still working: a guy I didn’t know
very well as he was the most recent move-in. His name was Jose, a lawyer from
Peru. I tried his key to get into my office, but it didn’t work. I could have
called home and waited for Erin to come pick me up, but before I got the chance,
Jose offered me a ride home. I asked where he lived and he was close enough
that I didn’t feel too guilty—besides, he was insisting.
On the drive home (with Annie, my dog, in the back seat of
his car), he told me about how he joined the church. He grew up in the very
impoverished mountains of Peru, in a town with no water source. Instead, every
Monday, a water truck would drive into town and everyone would fill up pots and
pans and jugs with water, knowing it had to last the whole week. But this time
Jose and his three brothers started playing in the water, not realizing time
was running out. The truck driver shut off the valve and drove away, leave Jose
suddenly in tears over the thought of having to go home to his parents with
empty water buckets.
The next day, Jose’s mother and father dressed for a long
journey, carrying buckets with them. Jose’s whole family (four boys and two
girls) waited by the doorway for their parents to return. The clock went beyond
12, and then three, then five. Finally, at seven o’clock his parents appeared,
weighed down. Jose cheered and the children all charged out to greet their
mother and father. But it soon became clear that his parents were merely
hunched over, tired from a day of walking—they still had no water. The mother
said “We didn’t find any water, but we found some gringos!”
Early the next day, two missionaries came to town. To make a
long story short, the family joined the church and continue to be active and
successful wherever they all ended up.
This story has stayed with me all week. Erin and I have been
praying for miracles, but we sometimes miss the miracles we get. Like Jose, who
was waiting for water, we’ve been waiting for easy fixes to immediate problems.
But instead, like Jose, we get more eternal solutions.
--Rob
