Meeting Jesus

 

So… some people meet Jesus at their summer camp in youth group, and some might meet Him on a missions trip to the inner city. Some people meet Him in jail. Some people meet Him in college. I don’t know. I actually think a lot of people meet Him at the hospital.

               That’s where I met Him. In the psych ward!

               When I was still in the E.R. area, waiting to get onto the floor, He came crashing in! I mean, there was some commotion, and I didn’t know what was going on, but I can be nosy, so when it calmed down I went out and looked into the other room, and this cute black young man was looking at me and talking to me! And He was talking to me like He knew me! He was excited! And I was excited too, wow it had been a crazy day. Then the staff told me I had to go back to my room, but the young man, he was saying, “I’m Jude Noel!”

               So… I was not really thinking about that in that moment. But Jude and I grew up together, and in elementary school were in some of the same classes. I’m sure I had a crush on him at some point in the fifth grade, I may or may not have been boy crazy, but Antonio told me later on I used to chase him around on the track and say… something so inappropriate I just can’t write it out, sorry! But, I don’t know if I believe it! I didn’t know what that word meant then!  I think I just have the wrong approach to attracting men. But I did learn that chasing them around the track and screaming bad things at them, it’s a bad approach. I don’t do that anymore.

               Jude was smart and sweet in elementary school. We both went to the same high school but I don’t know if we had any classes together at that point. I didn’t know him then. I didn’t know where he went to college, where he lived, or anything. So, I just hadn’t thought about him since elementary school really.

               I was whisked to the psych ward first, and was looking around for people, and Antonio came up not long after that. I don’t remember so much now! I don’t remember how I learned his name, even! But we walked a lot together around the hall, he taught me how to walk around up there. He would try to tell me things that I didn’t know, didn’t remember, didn’t know if it was possible even, but he was certain, he knew me, and man I knew he was an angel. That much was obvious.

               He was really cute! And I was just thankful to have a friend in there, the psych ward can be a very interesting place you know, well… people can have issues. 

               Now… mind you, looking back now, if I could have a do-over, I would have asked him a million more questions and gotten to know him more and stayed in touch but you know… my mind was going a million miles a minute on one hand, but on the other hand I was so extremely tired for not having slept in so long and I was so weak, I could hardly read or write or anything. I did write some letters and things while I was in the hospital. I tried to recruit a nurse to post on my blog for me, but she told me she couldn’t. That blog still makes me chuckle. I was freaking OUT. But I just remember, it was such an effort to read or write at some points. Anyway, point being, my brain was all over the place too! So I’d just be with Antonio, and he was always saying, I know, I know, I know. And I was always wondering, what does he really know?  I was really wondering if there were angels whispering things in his ear all the time telling him all these things he knew.

               He was so cute!

               And he really liked me!