A Love Encounter

I went to Walmart today to get some peanuts and love people. My time inside the store was relatively brief. I saw a woman who was struggling to walk, so I spoke to her for a minute and then she let me pray for her. She was blessed, it was nice. After I was done, I walked back to my car which was in the furthest spot in the parking lot (the farther back, the more chances I have to interact with people!). I saw nobody to love, but as I got in and started to leave the parking lot, I spotted a woman moving slowly along in a power wheelchair. I spun around, parked and got out to meet her.

Her name was Hodge, a fun name :-). She suffered from arthritis and the effects of neuropathy caused by diabetes. When I asked her if I could pray, she immediately opened up about her life and what has been going on. Her family has suffered greatly over the last year from alcoholism, multiple cases of cancer, seizures and deaths caused by them. She nearly started crying as she told me her story.

I told her I loved her and Jesus loved her and I wanted to give Him a chance to show her how much. So I put one hand on her shoulder and took hold of her hand with my other and began praying. I was so radically filled with love as I began that I could hardly keep going. But I prayed that Jesus would fill her with his love and his peace and bring healing to her body and family. Then I felt led to pray for her dreams and sleep at night (though she had not mentioned anything to me about dreams or sleep), so I prayed that the bad dreams would go and that she would have wonderful dreams and sleep well at night. And when she was awake at night, I prayed that she would feel the wonderful presence of Holy Spirit all over her.

The prayer ended and she looked up with her beautiful face absolutely shining. She excitedly shook my hand and said, "Thank you so so much! That was exactly what I needed. And you were right on about my bad dreams and trouble sleeping recently, thanks so much! I will remember this. Thank you thank you so much!!!" Eventually she let go of my hand and then as I turned to head back to my car, she asked, "Why did you pull over and pray for me?" It was an easy answer, "Because Jesus loves you and I do to!"

That was a very fun love encounter :-).