Peruvian Miracle

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