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Just to clarify, the man pictured above is not Jewish. The "Wandering Jew" in this story is a plant. A plant that survived a 3,000 mile journey.
The Story of a Wandering Jew
A Precious Little Gift
It was late July 2009, when he stepped off the plane. She had arrived at the airport 2 hours before
his plane would land and spent the time pacing the many corridors of the
different terminals, trying to keep from checking the time to often, as she
knew that would only make the time go by even slower. She decided to get a cup of coffee and read 2
Corinthians even though she knew that her ability to concentrate on the text
would be limited if not a complete impossibility.
As she opened the bible, her eyes fell upon 2 Corinthians
4:6 and she read, “For God, who said, "Let light shine out of
darkness," has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of
the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ.” Although she had read this passage many
times, today was different. As she sat
there awaiting his arrival, she decided to memorize this passage and to share
it with him once he landed.
As she sat there meditating on the passage and reciting it
in her mind over and over, she noticed that her coffee was gone. She didn’t even remember drinking it and yet
the cup was empty. A woman walked passed
the table and paused for a moment to check for something in her purse. “Excuse Miss—do you happen to know what time
it is?” she asked the passerby.
An hour and a half had gone by sense she had sat down to
drink her coffee and read. His plane would
be landing in 15 minutes.
She gathered up her things and headed for the nearest
restroom to check her face and hair.
Even though she was very much against being judged by her external
beauty, today she felt a certain amount of anxiety about what he might think of
her physical appearance.
They had never met face-to-face. She was to pick him up at the airport and
give him a ride to a hotel where he would be spending the night. He would then spend the rest of the week with
his uncle in a town that was a 2 hour drive from the airport and she would
spend the rest of the week at work. They
had that afternoon and evening to spend together before he would be leaving the
next day.
She was filled with such a mixture of emotions. He mentioned that he would be wearing a red
polo shirt and she knew that he would be carrying a black sports bag with the
logo from a conference she had attended in the fall of the previous year. There he was.
His red shirt stood out among the sea of washed out grays and blacks and
tans that surrounded him on the escalator.
Her heart was pounding.
Although they had exchanged pictures of one another; she
wasn’t sure if she would have recognized him had he not been wearing that red
shirt.
She was studying his face while the escalator descended
wondering when their eyes would meet--wondering if he would smile when he
recognized her standing there. He
glanced up and fixed a steady gaze upon her.
There was a smile—a soft, kind, and yet reserved smile that left her
feeling somewhat unsure about how he felt.
She met him a few feet from the foot of the escalator and
they embraced. It seems as though the
world had stood still as they held each other tight. They walked hand-in-hand to the baggage claim
looking at one another more often then to where they were headed, as if
studying each others faces—trying to take in more information than humanly
possible. This was no casual meeting. This was a long anticipated experience.
His suitcase finally appeared on the conveyor belt and they walked
together to the car, constantly glancing over at one another.
Once in the hotel room, he unpacked a few things and then
turned to her and said, “Oh, I almost forgot—I brought you something, but I’m
not sure how it survived the trip.” He
pulled a zip-lock bag from his carry-on and handed it to her. It was a cutting from a plant that had grown
on the porch of his grandmother’s house.
He had told her the story of this plant, how it had almost died and that
a new plant had grown from a cutting like the one he was giving to her.
“What a strange and wonderful thing to do and what a strange
and wonderful man he is” she thought as she thanked him for the little
cutting. He pointed out that the plant
inside had a good root system and even a clump of dirt from the pot he had taken
it from; but the zip-lock bag was warm and the cutting looked very pale; almost
gray in color and transparent. She knew
that she had better get this little guy into some soil fast, if it was going to
have any chance at all of surviving.
He was exhausted. Not
just from the 10 hour flight; but, also from lack of sleep and the emotional
exhilaration and anticipation of meeting this woman, whom he had been
corresponding with over the past 8 months.
They knew that they would be seeing each other again in four
short days. His uncle was picking him up
in the morning and she would be joining him there after the work week was over.
But, still they didn’t want to part.
She lived only 10 minutes from the hotel. Glancing down at the zip-lock bag and then looking
into his tired eyes, she said, “How about if I zip home, get this little guy
into some soil, and then pick up something for the two of us to eat. I can be back in about an hour?”
Although he didn’t want her to leave, he agreed to the plan.
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