Lightning Flashes, and Encounters With the Divine…

I know I am in the middle of writing my review of God’s Not Dead 2, but a very unusual thing just happened to me this afternoon that I thought worthy enough to share.

Those of you who know Elliot’s story know what a miracle child he is. He has defied death already a few times in his short life. I’m telling you, God has big plans for that boy. It might just be the parent in me talking, but I believe that boy is truly special on some very deep level.

In any case, this happened today…

It was after school, and I took my 4-year old son Elliot to the mall to walk around. As is our custom, he will hold my hand and walk through the parking lot to JCPenny. As soon as we get inside, he stops, backs up against me, and indicates he wants to ride on my shoulders. At some point, I know he’s going to say, “Daddy, pick me up,” but as of now, it still is the simple, “Up!”

In any case, as is our custom, I walk through JCPenny and into the mall area, still carrying Elliot on my shoulders as we walk past the food court, Belk, a hat store, as well as other shops. Right about the time we get near Victoria’s Secret, Elliot slides off my shoulders to walk. No, he does not walk into the den of iniquity known as Victoria’s Secret…he walks past and goes into MasterCuts. Why? Because the hairdressers there love him, and they give him suckers.

Well, today, there was a wrinkle in that custom. Today, when we got near Victoria’s Secret, Elliot got off my shoulders, started to walk on as he normally does, but instead, he stopped. He then turned around and saw three women walking behind us. I’m assuming it was a mother with two adult daughters…the daughter in the middle was clearly pregnant. Elliot walked directly toward them, and in fact, directly to the pregnant woman.

As he was walking up to her, her eyes got really big and started to tear up. Elliot went up to her, put his hand on her belly, and just looked up at her for a few seconds. He then turned and walked back to me. Obviously, as soon as he had started walking toward these women, I immediately followed him, so by the time he turned back to me, I had come up to the women as well.

I laughed and said, “Wow, that’s weird. He never does that!”

The pregnant women said, “No, you don’t understand. A few days ago I just lost my son who was about his age.”

She then knelt down, and Elliot walked back to her and gave her a hug.

The woman’s mother said to her, “You know what that is, don’t you?”

The pregnant woman then took a few dollars out of her purse, gave it to me, and said, “I always took my son to Dippin’ Dots. Please, go take your boy to Dippin’ Dots and get him something for me.”

And that was it. Elliot said, “Bye, bye,” and we parted ways.

***

So what had happened there? I don’t think I’ll ever know for sure. But something happened there that I don’t understand. Elliot hardly ever walks up to random people. And in this case, it was something deliberate. He stopped in his tracks, turned around, and almost targeted this woman, walking directly up to her, placing his hand on her pregnant belly, and, perhaps in some unintelligible way, pronounced a blessing upon her.

Somehow, he knew to comfort a woman who had lost her little boy.

And as quickly as it happened, it was over. We were walking towards MasterCuts, and he was ready to get his suckers. Such are glimpses of eternity and moments of Christ in our midst. We are out and about, living our lives, and like a bolt of lightning, something illuminates our existence and we see there is something much deeper and more mysterious to our existence than we realize.

And then the moment passes, and we find ourselves with the challenge, dare I say vocation, to continue to live that lightning flash in a world of darkness and shadows.