Love's Beautiful Jewel

A new face at Spanish-English class, Sat. mornings at St. Paul Lutheran. Her name is Anna. Somewhat careworn but wanting to improve her English.

I asked her about herself and her family. She talked about her four children, including twin girls. One was "bad" and had a child out of wedlock and gave her up for foster care. She doesn't get along with Anna because she complains that she raised her too strictly. She won't let her daughter reside with the child's grandparents for that and other reasons. So Anna and her husband don't get to see her.

Anna said she has suffered so much in worry over her daughter and granddaughter, and that now, somewhat in exhaustion, she is telling herself that she needs to move on. She is trying to earn her GED and wants next to study pharmacology.

Anna lives in Downers Grove near the Jewel on 63rd Street. When she said "Jewel," it came out as "azul" (blue), and so I stopped and corrected her. A"j" sound, not a "z" sound. She asked me if I knew what jewel means in Spanish. Joya, she explained. Sounds like joy. She smiled. I didn't notice a diamond on her finger (though she said she is married). I said, Anna, I think your smile is as beautiful as a jewel! Her smile deepened.

I have prayed that God show me what love means, how He intends me to love. One mode of love is compassion -- the sharing of another person's suffering and joy. Intensely personal, it is sharing the warmth of a smile, the depth of human suffering. I told Anna, God must be crying over all the suffering of humanity. We agreed. On my way home I cried with joy and grief, for Anna, and for the suffering world, whom God loves so much, so much more than I can love. It seemed a moment when God allowed me to glimpse of what it means to love, how God loves, and what a cross of grief Jesus carries as he walks His way this pre-Easter day, toward Golgotha.

Those minutes with Anna tore in two a curtain that separated two human beings, revealing the closeness that comes from seeing another person, sharing her life and concerns, and helping her feel joy in being recognized as valuable and lovely. Her responsive smile rewarded me as sunhine through clouds, as a sparkling jewel.

Listen to Foreigner, "I Want to Know What Love is" sung by Tina Arena.

Listen to "Smile" by Nat King Cole.