I’m sitting outside the compound of the Children’s Home, holding one of my little ones when I see a boy about 4 years old, Israel, approaching slowly. I can see the pain he feels as he walks, stiffening up his shoulders and neck. Israel has a broken collarbone, and when we arrived he was just starting to walk again. Every day we did therapy with him, making him walk while he pulled along his beloved red Fisher Price truck. I pass my baby to another missionary, Israel grabs my finger, and we start walking. He would not let me go, and cried if for a moment I withdrew my finger. There are two things Israel will not walk without: his Fisher Price truck and the hand of someone watching over him.
Around noon we all head to the Home of the Dying, another center of the Missionaries of Charity. Most of the patients in the 240 beds here have TB or AIDS. As we walk down the aisles, hands stretch out to grasp our hands. Because of the language barrier, we can barely speak to them, but somehow it doesn’t seem to matter. All they need is to hold our hands. The younger ones have the energy to give us a high-five, but most only hold out their hand so that you draw close to them.
It is a lesson for us, and it is the way that I sum up everything that this week has meant: grab God’s hand and don’t let go!
Years ago, God brought the people out of Egypt and led them to the Promised Land. Today, Israel held my hand and we walked together. My hand gave him the security to keep going in his weakness. The AIDS patients held out their hands as if just with my touch I could give them strength and comfort. I listened to the closing reflections of the girls tonight as they spoke of the vices and “spiritual junk” they would leave behind in Haiti, and I saw God grasping each of their hands and leading them out of their “Egypt” to a new spiritual plane in their life. The promise of God resounds in my mind: “I will lead you to green pastures.”
Isn’t that green pasture what we thirst for, what we hunger for; isn’t that’s our heaven? That’s how we can build bridges — by holding God’s hand and never letting go of Him. Just like Israel, we just need to hold on tight and let Him guide us to greener pastures!
