While in the grocery store checkout line some months ago, I ran into a friend I hadn’t seen in a while. We conversed briefly across the aisle while checking out. Before leaving, we continued our conversation away from the cash registers.
“How are you feeling?” I asked, knowing she was recovering from a near fatal case of Covid a year earlier with fatigue and significant hair loss.
“This is a wig,” she informed me as she stroked the blonde hair that resembled her real golden locks. She told me that her hair still hadn’t fully grown back in. I was surprised that she was still dealing with such a traumatic side effect.
“Why don’t we pray about your hair?” I asked. I put my arm on her shoulder as we bowed our heads, oblivious to the activity around us.
I don’t remember my exact words except that I asked God to restore her hair. We hugged, said our goodbyes, and left the store as if what we had just done was an ordinary occurrence.
This incident reminded me of another situation a year earlier while out of town. I had given a copy of my memoir, “The Road to Mercy,” to a waitress. At the restaurant a few days later, she told me she had read my book.
“Your story gave me hope,” she said. “I feel like I need to tell you mine.”
She told me that when she was a child her mother sold her for sex to supply her drug habit. She had kept that secret for years and had only recently told her father.
“I’m so sorry,” I said as I wiped away my tears. I wrapped my arms around her and began to pray quietly. We had a brief conversation about her current life. She thanked me for the prayer, and quickly got back to her duties. I was grateful my transformation from an early life of pain had given her hope.
These two are just a sampling of the encounters I’ve had. One time I even prayed with a nurse in the pre-op room before my operation. I had briefly shared some of my testimony with her, and she asked me to pray for her.
Throughout the bible, God encourages us to pray. In I Thessalonians, God says to “…pray continually.” And James 5:13 says, “Is any one of you in trouble? He should pray.” It doesn’t have to be limited to praying in church, or at home. We can pray at work or in our cars. We can pray by ourselves or we can pray with others. We can pray out loud or we can pray silently as God can hear our thoughts. God wants to hear from us any time, day or night. He never sleeps, and He’s always open for “business.”
God will give us divine appointments. We just need to act on them. And just one little encounter could possibly change someone’s life.
Mary Therese Hutchinson 