Brighten the corner where you are

We’re sitting on the tarmac. Our departure time has come and then gone. “We have some VIP traffic right now,” the pilot says, “and all lanes are frozen.”

Mr. Schrock takes a look out the window. And there sits Air Force One. Aha!

Beside me, as we wait, sits a young woman. I’m tanned to brown from summer’s blazing sun, but she was gifted with a caramel tone by the Maker of us both. She’s lovely.

She takes out her phone and, sitting there, I cannot help but hear her side. “Has Ricardo (*__) been booked already?” She listens. “I have a different number for him to contact me when he’s able to call. Can you give it to him?” On the other end, someone in a jail somewhere agrees, and she reads aloud her number.

Sometime later, her phone rings. I hear her say, “You can’t call me for three days? Three days?” Her tone is forlorn (I know no other word), and then silence.

At last, we lift off of terra firma, rising straight into the clouds. For a long time, everything is quiet and still. Finally, as we are approaching our airport, I hear it. In the seat beside me, she cries quietly inside her mask. Her face is turned hard toward the window.

I wait. I wait, and I feel the Hand. At last, I pull my mask down, put my hand on her arm, and I say, “I prayed for you that God would help you. Jesus always knows what to do. I prayed for peace.”

Surprised, she says, “Thank you.”

We’ve begun our descent. Wheels kiss the runway, we taxi toward home, and then she says it. “What made you say that to me?”

I smile into her brown-skinned face. “I hear from God, and I know when someone needs encouragement.” And so I say it again. “Jesus always knows what to do. I will pray for you as you come to my mind.”

Turning, I settle my black bag onto one shoulder, tuck in the BOB (Bright Orange Blanket), and follow Mr. Schrock into the bright light of day. In my hot-pink shoes, of course.

Brighten the corner where you are,
Brighten the corner where you are.
Someone far from harbor you may guide across the bar.
Brighten the corner where you are.