An Unlikely Angel

I've had weeks and weeks of feeling terrible, horrible, no good, and very bad - and struggling (and sometimes failing) to keep on my game face at work. Last Friday a woman I don't work closely with (who hardly spoke to me before) asked me if I was homesick. I said I was, a little, and she nodded and said she thought so. She seems like a toughie so I hastened to add that in a little while, I'll be okay. Then, as she handed me some vitamins (oh Korea - I know this is how you show real care!) I noticed that she had tears in her eyes. Don't know when I have been so gobsmacked and so thankful. She - a stranger, almost - was sharing my pain. Today she came into the room where I was marking my students' work and brought me a cup of coffee and a cookie. Warmth in her eyes. Kindness and sympathy. Human comfort. A great, gaping void where I looked for and expected to find those things, and then to have them come tiptoeing in from an unexpected quarter...

This has God's mark on it. Dear, tenderhearted Father, who knows just how much it means to me to be understood!