Last week I drove to the Kroc center for a workout. As I parked, I heard an enormous crash, metal on metal. Having been in two bad car accidents, I knew that sound. Sure enough, when I looked in my rearview mirror I saw there had been a head-on collision involving a car and a U-Haul truck at the intersection I had passed through only moments earlier.
By the time I finished parking, there were already people running
toward the accident to help; in fact, a patrol car showed up moments later. So
I stood in the parking lot, wanting to see if the driver of the car exited the
vehicle. He/she did not.
A woman came to stand next to me.
“Oh, Jesus. Help them,” she whispered. “Protect them. Oh
Jesus, please shine your mercy on them. Oh, Jesus.”
Two fire trucks and an ambulance arrived.
I turned to the woman. “Do you want to say an ‘Our Father’
together?” I asked.
“Oh yes,” she said, as she grabbed my hand.
And we prayed. Slowly and with meaning. Afterwards, we
embraced, not awkwardly or with hesitation, but fully and tightly. I felt an
incredible outpouring of love. I was awash in it.
I cannot even begin to describe what a powerful, moving,
emotional moment that was. Two women who were complete strangers, standing in the Kroc
Center parking lot, holding hands while praying the Our Father. Doing the only
thing they could to help other strangers in need.
“We can go now,” she said after the embrace. “They are in
good hands.”
Together, we walked toward the entrance of the gym. She told me her
name, and I asked her to spell it for me. I wanted to remember her. Remember
this moment when two strangers on God’s magnificent earth shared a prayer together.
Her name?
Ebelechukwu, which in Nigeria means “God’s mercy.”
Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528)
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