In The Company Of GIANTS… (part 3)
The Beauty… And The Giant
Tuesday nights were my favorite time of the week for the next three years. I ate 5 times my body weight in sugar wafers… chewed the rim off of at least 600 Styrofoam cups… talked a l0t about God, and learned a great deal more. Not a bad way to spend an evening, huh?
I could fill at least two more big books with what I learned while in that ‘tenement’ and in the company of that woman. But it’s what went on in that little, worn-out place every other night that still brings me to my knees… and clouds my eyes with love and amazement.
I was speaking some years later in a nearby city, and stopped in Dewitt to reminisce. By God’s grace I found all my old friends, everyone from Maribelle’s flock. Everyone, that is, except Maribelle. To this day, I still have no idea where she is. It’s as if she just ‘moused’ her way right on out of this world. But I learned that she left some big tracks!
I had stopped by her apartment in ‘the housing’, hoping against hope that I’d find her there. And I must have looked fairly lost, because over my shoulder two voices called out, “What’cha looking for?” I thought for a moment that I just might be in trouble… that is, until I said, “I’m trying to find Maribelle.”
At least four doors opened along the commons, and men, women and kids started towards me. Thank God, they were smiling! I don’t remember their names. I only vaguely recall their faces. But their words were a refiner’s fire… and a cool breeze… and the toppin’ of a short hill in a fast car, all at the same time.
One right after another, and sometimes, two at a time told me about “Momma” Maribelle. You see, I knew about the wonder of Tuesday nights, but had no idea about:
¨ Monday night cooking classes for the unwed, live-in and newly-wed teens that called those ‘tenements’ home.
¨ Thursday night sessions with new mothers, to teach them how to change, bathe, hold and love their “Treasures”, as they now called them.
¨ Daily and regular exhortations to the young women sharing abodes with men on how to love, honor and encourage those men. And above all, to love God with everything they had… and hoped for.
You know, I didn’t recognize her for a long, long time. 53 and built like a pear, she had straw yellow hair, a splotchy complexion… and a glass eye. Some folks might say, “No wonder I didn’t recognize her!” I prefer the truth these days. And the truth is, I was just plain blind.