As I sit here looking out of the window at my favorite junk food place (as mentioned in other articles: I don’t eat anything they sell) at 12:38 on this beautiful June afternoon, I have to laugh. First, because most of my inspirations seem to come in these places; and second, because God provides me with the inspirations in the first place. And as to that, I can assure you – God never lets us down; we have to sometimes be patient; but, He never lets us down. As I type, my feet are tapping a beat that is the same as the speed my thoughts are clicking at; and, I hope, today’s article will be of use to someone.

A few weeks ago as I was walking down at the lake – amongst the boats and seagulls and food smells and lake stuff, I captured some images; and strangely enough, today, God has spliced them all together, with some completely different thoughts that I have had on my mind recently. This article will talk about cement and water; my dear friend Jenny; and a yacht and an old tugboat. So first, I’ll talk about Jenny.

About five years ago, I was in another junk food restaurant where we volunteered each Tuesday and Thursday for over three years (we have since moved to another location); where one day, I met Jenny. We were at a table and talking loudly (especially me) about Jesus, when Jenny, who was sitting at a nearby table, slowly turned her head and started to speak to us; which came as a great surprise and honor. More so because Jenny is a senior and from a completely different culture; one that doesn’t mix with westerners easily. God, of course, works in mysterious ways.

As the conversation progressed, she told us she was born in –, had escaped to –, and from there gone to Paraguay, and then, finally, ended up in Canada. She didn’t say it; but it was clear that life had been tough for her. As this was five years ago (current year 2008), I cannot remember our first conversation, but I do remember much of the subsequent ones. She came to Canada and worked many years as a housekeeper, and then other hard jobs, and finally, as a parking garage cashier – where despite the boredom, swearing of coworkers, and other hardships – she was treated with dignity and respect by all who knew her. But what struck me as beautiful throughout this, was how from her description, she would plod through each day with no fuss or complaint, no rebellion; and no bitterness. As week after week passed, and I learned more about her, my respect for her quiet non-assuming nature increased measurably, and then one day – out of nowhere, she hit me with news that filled me with admiration: at age 63, she had finished a degree…in Math! and was now studying higher level math courses Good for you Jenny! I thought. (Especially since my own memories of math were so horribly dismal.)

As the months passed into years, Jenny would show up as much as she could, to listen to and comment on Christianity; which at first was difficult on us because she was completely drowned in eastern philosophy – which is anti-Christian; and tradition, which is meaningless. She also believed in ancestor worship, reincarnation, the philosophy of the value of the individual, and etc. So, to deal with this, my approach was not what many other Christians do – to encourage the other person to talk about their culture and religion as a way of establishing a friendship, and then talking about Christ; instead, I forbade any talk that was not about Christ, as I believe time is both short and precious; therefore, we must stick to proclaiming Christianity, instead of having a give and take approach. And as to this, I was delighted to notice that in Jenny’s case it worked; as she was hungering for the truth, answers, love and the righteousness, that only God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit can provide. The philosophies and religion of her own culture could never do this.

As time passed Jenny moved downtown, which is a considerable distance from me, but nevertheless, we kept in contact. Without sounding too corny; people in our modern world are like express trains – they fly by our lives in an instant, and are never seen again; but Jenny and I refused to let this happen. Jenny doesn’t have a car, and to reach our group she has to travel a good fifteen miles and take three bus and subway transfers; but nevertheless – she still arrives. I see her in the hot of the summer coming to visit us, looking a little withered; and I see her bundled up in layers of clothing in the winter – always dragging around a heavy two wheeled shopping cart full of who knows what.

As time continued to pass (sorry to start another paragraph like that), Jenny would speak less and less about the eastern stuff, and would ask more and more about Christ; which was easier than it sounds, because Jenny had had a miserable life, and was searching for love and acceptance. Initially, her belief was that there are forces of this and forces of that in the universe, and that her suffering was just the way things went; which left me sad, because this kind of thinking steals life of its meaning. And whereas the nonsense of “forces” I cut off immediately, I encouraged her to talk about her suffering, because I’ve recently been blessed to learn that a good representative of Christ – is always a good listener; and that each suffering person needs to get their suffering out in the open in order to heal. And then I spoke.

I told her the philosophy that people are basically good is false; as people are bad – all of us. In human terms, we see bad as having degrees; the child who steals a chocolate bar is a “little bad,” while the murderer is “very bad”; however, that’s not how God sees it. To Him, all bad is bad, and all sin is sin, because – all of it is disobedience and separation from Him. This idea was completely foreign to how she saw things, but through God’s majesty and grace – she accepted it without question, which only the Trinity could make happen.

Next, we talked about the suffering part and I explained to her that the Bible was full of people suffering for their faith in God. For example, Jesus suffered everyday of His earthly life. He suffered due to the responsibility He had to die for our sins, He suffered because of our refusal to turn away from our wickedness, and He suffered because of his never ending love for us. At this point Jenny told me she admired Jesus; He was, as she put it, a man of dignity and honor who stayed true to His mission. She wasn’t at the point where she could accept that He was and is the Son of God; but she did admire Him.

This brings me to the cement and water. As mentioned earlier, I was down at the lake a couple of weeks ago, where I happened to notice an indentation of about a foot in the cement dock; and as the water gently lapped against it, it didn’t seem possible that the water could wear it down; but it had. I had seen rocks worn smooth by running water in streams many times before, but this indentation was about a foot deep. And this, along with the deserted grain elevator nearby, got me to thinking.

As humans, history, and our very nature, have conditioned us to see change and processes as being successful if they are powerful, visible, and fast. For example, the lightning storm that causes the wildfire, is seen as a huge force of immediate change; and the same applies to floods, volcanoes, landslides, and etc; but real Christianity is completely different. It takes time; even centuries. In the case of Jenny, it has taken over five years; with many conversations, questions answered (or not), prayers, and God’s grace and guidance. In her case, I had to slowly allow God to peel away layer after layer of misconceptions of how things really are; I had to make her understand that she wasn’t alone in an uncaring world; that her life had meaning; that there was reason for the hurt she has gone through; and most important – that God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit love her. The last one was what has turned her around.

Jenny has tried her best to live with dignity in a life that has treated her badly. She’s tried it by being a loving wife; a great mother, a treasured grandmother, and good friend; a first rate student, as well as a fine artist. But, it is only the recent realization that she is loved by God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit, that has finally brought her peace in her tired and suffering heart. Praise God.

Last week, I went over for my once a week visit with her, and was startled by what I saw. Jenny is, as mentioned a minute ago, an artist, and art history is one of my hobbies; however, whenever I see her art, I feel sad; as the colors she uses are various grays and black, and the work has a somber, raining everywhere dreary quality to it. The paintings are good; but the emotion behind them isn’t. And that’s what surprised me the other week, as the colors and themes had changed completely. Now, instead of the futile “Life is dark” type of theme – I saw life! One painting in particular showed an open window looking out on a happy scene, and others showed trees and skys; however, what amazed me, was the choice of colors – they were hot reds, oranges, and yellows: they were full of happiness. Jenny hadn’t yet told me, or wasn’t fully aware of it; but Jesus had opened the door and was about to enter her heart. And when I asked her about the change of colors and themes, she told me she felt different; she felt happy and love. And when I told her that the changes were dramatic, she told me that when she had painted the first group of paintings five years ago, she had been very sad, but now she wasn’t.

As I sit here this morning and write this, I can visualize the beautiful dinners that Jenny has ready for me each week when I arrive – there are delicious soft steamed yams, tofu soup, creatively cut up watermelons and strawberries, and bananas for potassium. As I sit there in her clean cozy little living room, I feel great; I can see the passing of time in the old iron fireplace, and the hundreds of books she has lining the walls tell their own story: a woman who has spent her whole life searching for something – acceptance, meaning, purpose…love. I see pictures of her kids and grandchildren – which she adores, but I also see a lifetime of yearning; and all of this explains the new colors, the new expressions, and the fun in her food…the yearning is gone. She now has love. Praise God.

This article has gone on much too long (like most of them), so I’ll end with this image. Last night a group of four of us took Jenny down to Cherry beach, where at 8:00 as we had an evening picnic and looked about on the wind-stirred water; I sat there and let the others talk to Jenny about Jesus in her own language. I felt as happy as could be.

Ooops! I forgot to talk about the yacht and the tugboat…hmm; I guess they’ll have to wait for another time. As you read this article please pray for Jenny as she is real close to accepting the Lord, but not quite yet. She believes in the Trinity and loves them, but we still have a little (very little) work in getting the last of the eastern philosophy garbage out of her head and heart. But pray for her please, as prayers – sometimes many of them, do add up, and when God is ready, in His time, things happen. With God, all things are possible, and I see this with my friend. The change in Jenny is dramatic, and real; which is summed up in the title: New colors; New Jenny.