There was a women’s retreat in Ojai on Saturday and I was invited to attend by a friend of mine who leads the senior ministry there. I felt like an outsider, but I am pretty outgoing. After the keynote speaker, they broke us into small groups to discuss together and I thought that I was the only outsider in the group. I figured in my head that there must’ve been only about four or five folks like myself there.

When I first sat down, I saw an elderly lady sitting in front of me. She had the most beautiful eyes for a woman of her age, and at one point, she turned around and opened those eyes widely and looked at me. It was like the eruption of the sun first thing in the morning, those big, blue eyes. I smiled warmly at her, and I immediately assumed that she was a member of the church but later during the group session, she mentioned that she was involved with end of life assistance to the elderly. It seemed to be something that we had in common, so when she commented on my voice when we were alone, I mentioned to her that my husband and I had started a senior ministry. Her eyes lit up, and suddenly she reached into her purse and handed me a card about a book she had written about aging joyfully and nurturing the senior spirit.

Whenever you meet someone who uses the term “spiritual” and “holistic” in the same sentence in Ojai, you surmise that you’re not necessarily dealing with a Christian, so I started to realize that this little woman with the beautiful blue eyes may not be a member of the church at all and I couldn’t assume that she was a Christian either. After describing my ministry to her, she asked for my phone number, and I gave it up gladly, hoping that I could sometime invite her to one of my senior services on the third Sunday of the month. That’s something that I do frequently for people who are interested in senior ministry no matter where they are in their faith.

I think the interesting part of the story is that I was feeling like the outsider until I met another outsider. I wonder if this lady thinks that I go to this church. I imagine that she does because I never said that I was a visitor. I think that is how we represent Christ. We don’t always think we are representing him, but every move we make and word we speak is suddenly very important. I wish we could go into relationships keeping that in mind all the time.

I think about Zaccheus, who climbed up on a tree branch to see Christ, but never dreamed that he might be hosting him for dinner that very night. That’s kind of how it feels to me sometimes. Meeting this sweet lady and being able to connect with her reminded me of how important it is to always be ready and always be open to whoever comes your way. I look forward to meeting with the blue-eyed lady sometime in the future.