God with a Passport

This week I returned from a wonderful trip to see my son in Italy. He is in Pompeii and to see his workplace and to meet his friends and co-workers was wonderful....hot, but wonderful. I was on overload to say the least with Rome, The Vatican, Naples, Pompeii, the Mediterranean Sea, ancient Roman ruins, Naples and Florance....Michelangelos David and museum after museum of the most amazing art you could ever imagine...and church after church of the finest architecture and artwork. It really was a dream come true to be able to travel in Italy and to have the time to become a part of the communities, to get to know the shop keepers, to know their names and hear about their families. Not so unlike any of us in America or some of our beautiful sights.

I went on this vacation with a bit of a heavy heart as I left behind a friend of many years who was in a coma with brain cancer. I knew that she may not be alive when I returned and I was right...she died five days after I left. She had asked if I would go to the Vatican to pray for her, and recieve a papal blessing for her healing. I spent time there the day that she had died and could only ask that the God would heal her in body and if not, then to recieve her unto Himself and give her perfect peace and rest. I was peaceful with that prayer and the relinquishment. But the shock of hearing that she had died the same day as I was in St. Peters praying for her, was still difficult for me. I wondered if I had prayed hard enough, or used the right words, or had I done things different, would she be alive. Or maybe I should have changed the tickets to go a week early or....or.... I carried this around with me for several days and felt the heaviness of it literally hanging around my neck.

Her funeral was to be the next week on Wednesday and while in Florance that day I had done some walking alone, when I found a small little known church a block from my hotel. It wasn't in any of the travel books or a 'must see' mention from any one that I knew that had been to Florance. And believe me, in Florance there are some magnificant, beautiful churches with hundreds of years of history and well known all over the world. But, I came across two doors opening into a quiet little church with candles burning all around, with the lights flickering off the walls that were covered in paintings. The dark wood, the altar cloths, the candles...it was all very beautiful, but simple. Nothing like the large advertised churches, but rather, it seems like it was just there in all of the traffic and busyness for a purpose...I stepped inside, waited for my eyes to adjust from the bright sunshine and felt as if arms reached out and welcomed me, invited me in to sit and to be quiet for a time.

I sat for a long time and then realized that someone had come over to sit by me...it was the parish priest...and he asked me if my heart had been sad for a long time. We had not spoken before this!!!!!! Tears came to my eyes and I couldn't stop talking....I told him about Mary and her death and that I would not be home for her funeral and that I wasn't able to get the papal blessings for her healing and....and....and....and....I didn't stop until everything had been said that I needed to say and then I cried. She was such a dear friend. He was silent for a long time and then talked about God's timing, God's healing that comes in many ways, that God can transform a disappointment into something that can bring good, that God's healing is perfect in death, His love is everlasting and His faithfulness endures forever. Familiar words that brought me comfort and then he prayed and was gone. Suddenly I was as alone as I had been when I arrived...but not alone at all.

Westminster Abbey in London is a precious place to me...and I have spent several times for long periods of time sitting there and praying. I always find the Lord there even though it is a tourist attraction, it is a house of worship to me, a place that I seek and find God. I thought of Westminster as I sat in this little church in Florance and was blessed to have found God there too...only to be reminded in my heart that it was because He is where I am, enveloping me in His care and love and sustaining me when I hurt and am tired. Who knew God had a passport too.