A Church Alive segment recently stopped me, mentally, in my tracks. The speakers said that seekers are lead to the Reading Room when WE are serving. I know for a fact this is true.
Our RR is tucked back from the street, and as a way to let people know we're there, we put a cart on the sidewalk with literature. On a day I wouldn't normally been there, I watched from our window as a woman scooped up just about every Sentinel and Journal from the cart, crossed the street, and sat at the outdoor table of the McDonald's across the street. She sipped a drink and read and read. I prayed she was finding what she needed. After a while, I noticed she'd left.
Busy with a housekeeping task, I was surprised when a couple of hours later, she came through the door. "I had to come in, even though I was on my way home," she explained. "This is my day off, and I am so upset I felt I had to open your door."
I asked her to sit across from me, and the story poured out. She was head housekeeper at a chain hotel near a popular mall and the week before, she'd discovered a dead woman in one of the hotel's rooms. It appeared to be a suicide. Not only was the image stuck in a loop in her head, she was concerned about the whys and what would make this dear person take her life, and furthermore, whether the police had investigated the circumstances sufficiently to make sure it wasn't a suspicious passing.
Taking a deep breath, I realized why she'd come in that day. This dear lady had no idea I'd been a criminal lawyer in years past. I'd even taken a state forensics class for the non-forensics specialist.
First, I had to help her see that life is deathless, no matter what the human picture. We discussed how this woman, seemingly gone, was still working out her salvation and going about her Father's business. The human picture didn't keep her from Life, because she expressed Life as a reflection of her Father-Mother, God.
My friend was calming down. The tears stopped. But she worried still that, maybe, there'd been foul play, and that the police didn't seem interested in that possibility. I assured her that there was nothing hidden that would not be revealed, and that proper steps were being taken, later, to make sure that humanly, justice would be served.
Then a sad story poured forth about her marriage, her life, and her job. One by one, the spiritual answers came and Bible quotes, which she knew, comforted her. I knew, for a surety, that I wasn't coming up with these responses, because I didn't even have to think, the words poured out without hesitation.
She left with a copy of Science and Health and more periodicals with articles on some of the topics we'd covered. I wasn't to hear from her, or see her, for a year.
A year to the day, and I was in the Reading Room. My friend came in, smiling, asking if I remembered her. Of course I did, and I asked how she was. She said life was better, and that she'd been reading Science and Health whenever her husband wasn't around, since he didn't approve. Yet she persisted and was genuinely grateful for the small changes for the better that had resulted. A sincere seeker of Truth, on all levels, she wanted to thank me in person.
Little did she know, I wasn't regularly serving in the Reading Room on the two days she'd found me. God lead her and me to meet, and God clearly was lead counsel in this case.
