I’m a little behind on blogging, forgive me.
The last 3 days I’ve covered more ground than I have in the
past 3 weeks and it turns out it’s hard to type and drive at the same time. After
my last blog in San Diego I stayed a night with an old friend and mentor in
Mesa, AZ and then traveled to stay in Las Cruces New Mexico with a random (like
seriously SUPER random...like friends of my dad’s old co-workers random)
connection. It has been the check point that I think I was most nervous about
because I don’t know the people or place AT ALL!
We originally set it up so that I would arrive at their home
around 8:30 or 9 pm and so I figured since it was about a 6 hour trip from Mesa
I should leave Arizona around 2. Well I failed from the start because I didn’t
even get on the freeway til 3 and THEN got stuck in traffic for an hour, so I wasn’t
even out of Mesa 15 miles by 4 o clock! (for those of you that know me you know
that this isn’t a huge surprise and if it were family or friends I wouldn’t
have been as anxious but I didn’t know the family I was about to inconvenience
and I just didn’t want to be “that visitor”).
Here’s where it gets
worse…as I was passing into New Mexico I looked down and realized my phone had
jumped forward an hour...I had crossed a time zone! I immediately called and
talked to Josefina (the mother) and apologized over and over…”I won’t be there
for another hour I’m so so so sorry!” her
voice was so calm and so genuine…”do not be sorry, it’s ok!” I told her “if you
guys need to go to bed you can leave a key or I can sleep in the car. she said,
“no it’s ok, we’re waiting for you to have dinner with us anyway!” and she didn’t
say it in a way that made me feel bad (although I did) she was just trying to
relay the message that, NO, they would not be going to bed; that they were
excited to meet me and wanted to share a meal.
I pulled into their driveway in front of their beautiful
adobe, mission style home and walked to their door practically dripping sweat…I
felt absolutely sick to my stomach! They opened the door and greeted me with
smiles and hugs and gave me some baloney explanation how they sometimes eat
this late so I shouldn’t feel bad! (I didn’t buy one bit of it but appreciated
that they were trying to make me feel better!) Dinner was a fabulous authentic
Mexican meal and it couldn’t have tasted better after a day of munching on granola
and Cheetos in the car.
As I got settled in the room they had put me up in I quickly
realized they had kicked out their daughter (Liz) so that I could have her bed.
I confronted her about it when I ran into her in the hallway…”ummm, where are
you sleeping?” she didn’t answer just sorta grinned…her mom popped her head out…”she’s
sleeping in here with us!” I couldn’t help but burst out in a rambling “Oh My
Gosh, no, stop it! Please have your room back! This is silliness.” Here’s the
thing, It’s one thing if I had gotten here on time and walked in bearing gifts,
but I had literally been the worst guest. But that’s when I realized the Kind
of people the Mata’s are…they are grace filled people. Like God, they didn’t
give me what I deserved, they offered better. They didn’t judge me based on performance;
they loved me based on the fact that I needed to be loved. Period.
Well I wish I could say that that was all, but nope, the
kindness continued. In the morning (after sleeping in late because Josefina
INSISTED I not set an alarm) the whole family took work off and took me to
breakfast (I shouldn’t have been surprised at this point, but they didn’t allow
me to pay!) and then they drove me all around town to see the sights. When we
got back to the house I packed up my stuff and was saying my goodbyes when
Jesus (the dad) hugged me then handed me a very generous amount of gas gift
cards…I had no words. I’m hoping the tears that streamed down my cheeks were
the smallest start of some form of articulation that they had gone above and
beyond, some tiny illustration of the love I felt. As I walked out the door and
looked back to wave I couldn’t help but be convinced that I had stayed with a
host of angels on Tuesday night. These are people that emit Gods light like no bodies
business, people who reminded me of and modeled God’s extravagant and lavish love.
The stop I was dreading most has quickly become the one I revisit most in my
heart. Why am I doing this trip? Oh ya, that’s why…
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