My mother was taking me from a hospital in north Texas to a hospital in Dallas to see a my neurologist. We stopped at a Jack In The Box, and my deaf elderly mother, was leading me by my hand. Her grip on my hand was firm as she led me into the restaurant from the parking lot. Since she was not able to hear herself she was more than adequately loud to warn me of the curbs and obstacles in our path. She had a mission and by golly she was going to accomplish it in only the determined way a mother can do. She sat me down in a booth while she went to order our food.
Shortly after I sat down, I felt this hand on my shoulder and this man began to speak. It probably should have startled me but it didn’t as I recall. His voice was pleasant, but heavy. He didn’t ask, he just sat down, scooting me over in the booth with his thigh. Without taking his hand off my shoulder he told me I had a calling to teach about the virtues of Jesus Christ Our Saviour. And I was going to teach these virtues through illustration. I had just been blinded, I thought “This makes no sense”. He went on to explain that if I didn’t succumb to this calling I would be miserable. Moreover I would get more miserable the longer I postponed answering this calling. He told me I had been given a certain “glow” (whatever that meant) and people recognized it. When I spoke, people would listen. He went on to say, that if I would only trust and have faith, all I ever needed would be provided for me. I just needed to answer my calling, and quit running from Jesus. The man repeated the story several times, several different ways as he sat there always keeping his hand on my shoulder.
At one point I heard my mother ask me if I was all right and before I could sign back that I was, he answered her. To my surprise she understood him. I heard relief in her voice as she confirmed his answer. My vision was starting to get blurry, there was definition and detail, light and dark starting to appear in my sight. The feeling was that of the fog lifting. I could make out the shape of the windows and some people in front of them. It didn’t take much longer and my sight had been restored.
I turned to look at him. He was slender in his thirties in a dark green leisure suite. He looked nothing like he sounded.
He went over the calling a few more times, never taking his hand off of my shoulder. Then suddenly he stood up and walked out the door. He turned right and went in front of a brick partition between large windows. I waited to see him walk by the window. He never did. He never came in front of the window he was headed for.
He disappeared. Just like that. Puzzled, I got up to see if I could find him.
