Do any of us really know what a hug is worth? I'm not sure you can assign a monetary value to it, but have you ever thought about it? What does it cost to give one? What does it cost to receive just a hug? I know it seems like a silly question, but if you ever find yourself wondering what it costs you or what one hug is worth, I'd like you to think of the story I'm about to tell you.
Before our son
G was born, my husband Michael and I were pregnant with our first
child. After having been told that I
would have a 1% chance of conceiving a child naturally, this baby was truly our
little miracle. Sadly, 10 weeks into our
pregnancy, God called our baby home. We
never got to meet that child and as you can imagine, we were crushed by the
loss. At the time, Michael and I were
living in separate cities, so we didn't have the ability to comfort each other
and the only consolation to offer each other was through long-distance phone
calls. I can't tell you how many tears
we cried to each other on the phone. It
was a terribly lonely time for both of us.
A few days after our baby had passed, I was in a local drug store. I'm sure I looked a wreck after not having
slept well for days, weeping an endless river of tears and barely able to speak
without crying. While in line to
purchase whatever it was I was at the drugstore for, the cashier looked up from
her register and gasped when she saw me.
She was a young woman, probably not older than 20 and although I had
lived in the neighborhood for 10 years, I had never seen her there before. I was at the point where I didn't care what I
looked like or what a stranger thought of me.
I wanted nothing more than to get back to my house and drown in my
tears. Yet, this cashier, seeing me in
this state, gasped and said "Oh, honey, are you ok?" I looked up and couldn't say a word to her;
it took all my strength just to nod my head.
Seeing the tears in my eyes, she came out from behind the counter and
she said "Can I give you a hug?"
She wrapped her arms around me and the tears started again. While she held me I sobbed, saying that we
had just lost our baby. She said
"Oh dear Jesus. Let me pray for
you" and right there, in that line with probably ten other people looking
on, she prayed to Jesus, asking him to take my pain away and to watch over our
little one in heaven.
When asked the
question "Do you share your faith with others?" most people have said
to me that they try, but that it's uncomfortable or that they're afraid of
being rejected. I can completely understand that. It's not fun to be rejected and I'll admit
that I worry about talking about my faith sometimes too. But what if you don't have
to talk much at all? What if the cost of
sharing your faith is one hug? Could you
afford that? That cashier's hug meant
more to me than I can tell you. Michael
was 1,000 miles away from me and having someone physically console me and even
more, to pray over me in my time of need truly made me feel like Jesus was by
my side. Even in that terrible time, in
my grief, I knew that God had sent that stranger to give me one hug, to let me
know that He was there. One hug. It really doesn't cost that much.
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