There and Back Again

One day, several years ago, my youngest daughter and I decided to visit a friend and fellow seminary student who had been admitted to Loyola University Medical Center. I really don’t like driving to Chicago so my daughter and I decided to take the train. A friend told me that Loyola was within walking distance from where we would get off the train. I took her word for it and off we went. As we arrived at our destination we realized we had been misdirected and it would be much too far to walk to the Medical Center. Uncomfortable with the idea but realizing it was our only option we stood and waited at a corner for a bus that would make a stop at Loyola. We finally did board the right bus, made it to Loyola, finished our visit and headed out of the Medical Center. While I was feeling rather unexcited about the prospect of taking the bus again, I noticed a taxi waiting. Immediately I knew it would be well worth any cost to me to pay for a taxi to get us back to the train station. As we hopped into the back seat of the taxi, I noticed the driver. He was a huge and rather ominous looking black man. Keep in mind that any color of man this size, with this demeanor, in this situation would have unnerved me. Black, white, pink …any of those…. it just so happened that it was what it was. I felt somewhat fearful as I told him where we needed to go. Pulling away from the curb he suddenly demanded, “You a Christian?” Somewhat shocked but hoping to be able to please him I stuttered, “Yes, why yes, yes, we are!” My teenage daughter was cuddled up next to me in the back seat with her head leaning against my shoulder. I didn’t know if she was feeling what I was feeling or not but I began to get more and more nervous. I was imagining all kinds of things happening to us, even the possibility of loved ones never seeing us again. Very unexpectedly he continued in his demanding abrasive way, “What church do you go to”? (Like I really wanted to tell this guy I was a Mormon! ) I mustered the courage and said, “We go to the Mormon church. Have you heard of it?” “I know what you believe!” he grumbled. I didn’t quite think he DID know what we believe but I was not about to argue with him. He must have then asked me something about reading the Bible because I recall saying something to him about the scriptures and how sometimes they can be a little hard to understand. He said he understood them so I timidly added that I thought Isaiah was sometimes difficult to understand. Why should I have been surprised at that point that he let me know in no uncertain terms that HE understood them ALL. No argument there.:) I really don’t remember much more about the conversation, but that much I will never forget. I did not know the way back to the train station but I was fairly certain we weren’t heading in the right direction. I prayed a lot that we would return home safely. It did seem to take an unusual amount of time to get back to the station. When I could see that we finally had arrived I was astonished and relieved. Finding ourselves out of the taxi, back on the train and finally home, we were simply grateful to have made it there and back again.