I saw her the first day in San Juan
sitting with her back to a tree, palms outstretched, a mild stench
lingering in the air. Across from her lay a couple of ratty, tattered
and thin mattresses surrounded by trash. My heart went out to her but
I kept walking like everyone else.
Again and again I passed through her
home. With each passing a growing knowledge that I should stop. With
that knowledge a growing list of reasons why I should not. So I put
her from thought and moved to Arroyo Cano.
At the end of January we returned to
San Juan. Turning the corner at Isla gas station I remembered. My
heart beat faster, but still I walked on.
Our last few hours in the Dominican
Republic came. Leaving supper my thoughts again turned to her. I
stopped for ice cream to procrastinate a little longer. Half an hour
later I picked up my purse, told Amanda it was time (she was
graciously joining me to translate), trudged to the trash can and
tried to slowly walk the last block while thinking, “Maybe she
is asleep by now”.
We turned the corner to see her lying
down but awake. In all my awkwardness I approached. We sat for about
half an hour on that dimly lit street corner. People passed. Many
curiously stared. Others looked on with disdain. Much of what she
said was indistinguishable from the city noise. The look on her face,
however, did not need words. Happiness was evident in her twinkling
eyes and beautiful, snaggle-toothed smile. She was enjoying having a
hand to hold and someone to listen.
In those moments, captivated by her
smile, I saw beauty. The stench didn’t matter. The stares and
muttering passerbys didn’t matter. Only she mattered.
Just like the kids in Arroyo Cano, just
like each of us, she wants to be seen and heard, to be valued and
loved. It doesn’t matter that she is crazy, that she is homeless or
even that she smells. She is still fearfully and wonderfully made.
Her smile captures God’s heart just as it captured mine. He sees her
even though hundreds pass her daily without a second glance.
Is God trying to show you beauty in
some unexpected place?
