God smiled at me through, with, and in the bouncy African-American girl with twinkling eyes who signed me in and received my check. I saw God, because her smile said I was a person, not a number.
Next, God ran around the waiting room with a blond, two year old boy's shining, gleeful face. God's short legs pumped energetically, propelling him to every corner; he pounded enthusiastically on the trash can like a drum, dodged through the bathroom door for a quick look, - maybe hoping to find someone who was hiding? - and raced pell-mell between chairs.
How did I know this child was filled with the Holy Spirit? Because of his enthusiasm for life! Because he looked at everyone with joy, made us all laugh, and so brought us all together. Because he was there to accompany our waiting. Because his unpredictability mirrored the Wind Who blows wherever S/he wills. Because God tells us in Scripture that a little child will always lead us past fear and sadness.
The young man with developmental disabilities near us, who rocked to the piped-in music, laughed heartily at everything this little one did, and then turned to smile at my husband and me because we were also laughing and in on the joke. Once he saw that we were laughing too, he kept turning to look at us, to give and receive more smiles. God's innocence and simplicity shone in his face. If only we all felt free enough to laugh anywhere and everywhere!
The turbaned African immigrant woman next to my husband, who stared down at the floor with either solemnity or sadness, raised her head to look at the child; her smile, when it finally came, was wistful, but real. God's endurance rested in her quiet, folded hands.
The Asian immigrant woman, with white symbols decorating her face, watched the little one and cuddled her shy, pretty, pig-tailed daughter more closely. God's hope for the future radiated through her enfolding arms.
Another African immigrant, a slender young father wheeling a beautiful baby girl, kept his stroller rocking his big-eyed daughter to keep her peaceful. God is always rocking us; if only we stayed aware of Him, how peaceful we would be.
The blond fireball was followed everywhere by first his father, and then his mother. His father, a husky young man exuded God our Father's steady patience, following His children to protect them wherever they go. His mother radiated God's perfect Motherly love as She scooped her young son into her arms, smiling down at him. How attentively they cared for their two year old and an infant.
Finally our Doctor's young, brown-eyed Puerto Rican assistant called me in by name; how fitting that his name is Joshua, or Yeshua in Aramaic. How gentle he was as he took my blood pressure, asked me how I'd been. He definitely has the right name; he'll also be a wonderful physician to the sick one day, like his namesake from Nazareth.
When I first sat down in my mini-world yesterday, I looked at the people around me and my heart seized with grief. These are the poor, I thought. These are the ones receiving Health Care now, but what's in store for them? Who will care for them if this new Health Care bill does not provide adequate economic resources for our community? My Doctor loves working here; he loves the people. Will he be able to care for them? Leaving, driving away in our comfortable car, I watched the young couple with their two year old who is the Spirit's Wind and Fire, and their precious new infant, as they walked down the street. No car for them. Thank God it wasn't raining. Then, again, the original Holy Family didn't have a car either. They were poor. Refugees in Egypt for awhile. Helpless, even worthless, in the eyes of the Roman Government that occupied their country. But the quiet, ordinary life of the Holy Family changed the world.
Because of God's indwelling Presence, every family, every person in this world, has the potential to also change the world. God lives as the Heart of every family, and loves every member of every family in the world as someone with eternal worth. Wherever we go, wherever we look, we can always see God alive and well and at work among us.
In this waiting room we call "life on earth," we all await the gentle, healing touch of the Divine Physician, and we need each other, really need each other desperately as we wait. To reveal God's innocent Face to one another. To teach each other laughter and joy in the midst of terrible pain and sadness. To show each other God's luminous light that shines in the darkness of war and poverty. To help each other remember that the irrepressible Holy Spirit will go anywhere, everywhere, even dodge into our bathroom, to find us and carry us safely home.