One day a woman with dreadlocks came into our CLC bookshop in Italy and asked if we had a simple book about God. She wanted it for her father who was in the hospital. He was a very old man who had never believed in God, she explained, but now she’d seen him reading a Bible in his time of suffering. She didn’t know what prompted him to read it, but she wanted to somehow help him find peace and serenity. I recommended the little book, Peace with God – The Secret of Happiness by Billy Graham, which she thought would be perfect for her father. She told me she was Buddhist but very open to spirituality. As she began to walk around the bookshop, she marveled at all the beautiful material we had for children. She soon had collected many books for little ones along with daily verse calendars, explaining to me that she was a teacher and was always looking for nice children’s material.
I wanted her to know the beauty of the Gospel, so I went to the back to get a free copy of the book, Death of a Guru to give to her. She purchased the items she had gathered and told me about how much she liked to give gifts to other people, but that she often received nothing in return. As she finished that sentence, there I was with the book in my hand in front of her! God had created the perfect moment! I took the chance and told her, “This book is for you. Since you are always the one giving something to others, this time you are the one receiving something. I hope that through that spirituality you seek, this book will reach your heart with the love and truth of Jesus.” She burst into tears as if she could not believe that the book was really for her. She took it, thanking me from the bottom of her heart, and hurried away, as she was ashamed to cry unexpectedly like that.
A couple of hours she was back, this time with a friend whom she had not seen in years and had run into right near the bookshop. She was so excited to show her the beautiful place she had just discovered, full of beautiful spiritual material, and she bought a Christian calendar for her friend as well. She gave me a big hug as she left, and I promised that I would pray for her.
