“Can I hug you, as a friend?” the local woman asked shyly. “You know, I don’t have any friends left, no one who listens to me the way you did just now. I just can’t thank you enough…” “Of course!” I answered, as I gave her a great big hug. “I so enjoyed our time together.”

Walking away, I marveled at God’s timing. The three hours spent listening to the 47-year-old woman resonated deeply with me. There were times during our conversation where she was afraid to look up, as if plagued by shame. Other times, she shared things done against her that she carried like a burden through the years; things that highlighted the corruption of her culture. At times, she listened silently as I shared the gospel, her eyes burning with questions. And sometimes, she just opened her mouth and the words kept spilling, as if finally freed from a dungeon of silence. 

The woman who sat in front of me had made mistakes. She took terrible, life-changing steps that left her in pits so deep she didn’t know if she’d ever make it out. Yet the woman who sat in front of me was another soul who was in need of the life-changing, liberating truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ. 

In Luke 15, Jesus shared a story about a younger son who went against cultural norms by asking his father for his share, and squandered it without second thoughts. He made awful choices and mistakes that eventually brought him to the lowest of pits; in the mud with the pigs. It might have been the pangs of hunger, or the stench of the animals; but he finally came to his senses.

“So he got up and went to his father. “But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was filled with compassion for him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him.”

The son made his way back to the open arms of his father; arms of compassion that circled the hungry, dirty, eyes-burning-from-shame boy, picked him up, and invited him back...

That’s quite a life-changing hug.

I pray that the 47-year-old woman will one day experience the same arms of forgiveness and compassion that the younger son experienced. 

As for us; may we continue exchanging hugs – so that others, no matter where they are in life, would run into the open arms of the Father.