Anna’s Christmas Hope
Anna was a beautiful, young woman from Mexico, barely out of her teens. Somehow, she miraculously made her way across the border some five years ago. The chances she took for a better life seemed to far outweigh the risks. Growing up in Mexico, she had been raped multiple times by her father. She knew there was danger trying to cross into the United States but anything seemed better than the hell she was escaping from.
Anna already had glimmers of hope. Her two older sisters had found their way into new lives in Las Vegas. Over the past decade, they had worked hard and eventually become American citizens. Now they hoped for the same destiny for their baby sister.
When Anna arrived in Las Vegas, she began a brand new life that seemed far away from the abuses she had endured in her native country. She found work, met someone she married and had a beautiful baby girl she named Merida. But it seemed that pain she suffered in Mexico was never far behind her. Her new husband began to physically abuse her. Eventually, she couldn’t take the beatings any longer and was forced to flee. She moved in with her sisters, but continued to work hard, determined to build a new life for herself and her young daughter.
But one day there was a knock at the door. Two men were standing there from the immigration services. Without any explanation, Anna was handcuffed, arrested and placed into custody. Her baby daughter was taken from her. Out of spite, she had been turned in by her abusive ex-husband, who had tracked her down out of revenge. Ironically, for his reward, the authorities had also given Merida into his custody.
Before Anna knew what was happening, she was being processed and put on a bus to Tijuana, Mexico, where she would be dropped. She had only the clothes on her back, no phone, little money, and no one she could turn to in Mexico for help. As she rode south in the darkness through the cold Mohave desert, she felt very much alone.
How could all this have happened? She had tried so hard to leave behind the painful life she had suffered in Mexico. But now she was returning there much like the way she came. Without those who had befriended her in Las Vegas. Without her family. Without her little Merida.
She was now all by herself. And all alone. It seemed all she had left were the feeble prayers she offered up to God. But really, where was God now? Was this the way he was repaying her for believing in him?
She remembered back to the time a couple of years before, when the nice woman Anna had worked for shared about her own faith and encouraged Anna to consider opening her own heart to God as well.
Anna had been through so much pain in life that hearing about a God of love that actually cared about her personally seemed too good to be true. Nevertheless, she opened her heart and began to trust in God. She felt a strange peace that she had not experienced before.
But where was God now? Did it really do any good to pray? What kind of God would do this to her? As she glanced out the window at the white lines on the highway, the prayers of her friends and family back in Las Vegas seemed to be like a distant murmur in the darkness that become more and more muted as the bus traveled further away from them.
As the day moved slowly into night, no one in Las Vegas had even heard from Anna. On the dark streets of Tijuana, where was she? Thoughts from recent news stories of one of the world’s most dangerous and violent cities, of killings, drug cartels and sex-trafficking, only escalated the fears of those who cared for her back home. The truth is that it is these kind of desperate circumstances that bring about the deepest, most gut-wrenching cries to God.
The detour to LA for final processing and deportation didn’t take long. She felt lifeless and numb. Something less than human. Treated as if she were of little or no value, like cattle. She knew she was now on borrowed time. She was headed for her final destination and nothing could stop it. Once Anna stepped back on the bus, she found her seat and gazed out the window. She quietly wept. Alone. Without hope. God had failed her.
As they slowly pulled out of the station, something strange began to happen. Why was that man running toward the bus? Why was he shouting and then pounding on the glass? What was he saying?
Through the noise of the bus engines, Anna wiped her tears away to try and see the words the man’s lips were forming. The bus suddenly lurched forward to an unexpected halt.
“Stop the bus!” he shouted. “Stop the bus!”
“Anna Alvarez is not going on this bus!”
“Stop this bus and let Anna Alvarez off! She is not going to Tijuana!”
“Dear God in heaven, could this really be true? Had he really heard my cries? Is this a mistake? Is this my imagination playing games with me?”
Everyone seated on the bus turned to see for whom this amazing divine intervention had just taken place. Stunned, Anna slowly stood up. Her knees weak. Breathing hard. Her heart pounding.
“Iii…aa’m Anna Alvarez,” she stammered.
“C’mon. You’re not going to Tijuana. You’re going back home. Back to Las Vegas.”
Some of the best gifts from God can seem to arrive a bit late. But always on time to celebrate a true Christmas miracle.
(This is a true story that took place this past week in Las Vegas. For privacy sake, the names and some details have been changed.)
barryjacobdiamond
