It was my beautiful friend’s birthday last week. Her name was Polly
Two and a half years ago, my close friend was diagnosed with terminal cancer (melanoma). We were flight attendants together back in our 20’s and while I couldn’t handle any more socialising after a full day in a plane she remained socialite Queen of the City.
One day as I was killing time in town waiting for a client I heard my name and as I turned around there was Polly waving frantically to get my attention. I hadn’t seen her in 3 weeks and the extra weight she had gained through steroids shocked me. Polly was a model and her looks pretty much defined her so seeing her like this well.. broke my heart.
We went to a cafe and as usual, argued over who was gonna pay the bill. I hated having to leave her as there was something not quite right, more than just her illness. Before I said goodbye though, I called my client to arrange our meeting but instead, he canceled so Polly invited me to her house.
Like normal, we talked and talked. We have had this unspoken rule of you do you and I’ll do me. Although I am hardly a role model, she knows I’m a Christian but I’ve never forced it on her. However this day, I felt led to share with her about the speaker and his message from Church the Sunday before.
This speaker was touring the country talking about his death experience on the operating table. He talked about a light that many of us have heard about. Some say it’s just our brain shutting down but others talk about people they meet there and an unbelievable feeling of pure love. Polly listened intently as I told her that somehow I resonated with it. I said I believed it was more than just his brain shutting off because on the day I was saved, God revealed his ‘pure’ love to me all those years ago in exactly the same way this man described the light. In that moment, I remember there was no concept of time and if that was all heaven was it would be enough.
Polly went quiet and like a mouse, she asked “What does God’s love feel like?” I looked at her and took my time to answer. “Do you remember when your little girl Macey was born? and that moment when you felt an overwhelming love for her? ” She nodded. “It’s like that but 10 times more.” As I spoke those words my skin suddenly went prickly and she gasped and broke down. My heart started racing and it was like in those alien movies when you almost don’t want to know the answer because it’s scary. I looked at her sideways almost tempted to look back over my shoulder as if he was right there in the room and I whispered…”has he been to see you?” She couldn’t speak from crying but nodded. Finally, she said, “I didn’t know what it was”. Honestly? Right there God had never been more tangible. I have strayed so far from when HE first touched me but here in this moment, I felt so incredibly privileged to be used by him even still and knew that God hadn’t gone anywhere. We hugged (while I freaked out lol) and then she said to me “Raquel I think you’re an Angel because today was one of the darkest days of my life”.
I Am The Woman At The Well 