Last night was a glimpse into GOD’s world that we stumble around in, usually without realising any nuance.
After spending a relaxing Shabbat with friends we attended a birthday party where we were introduced to a recent arrival, we proceeded to find intersection from various places. A particular name was mentioned, whom I did not know but for some reason stuck in my head.
Afterwards, as is our custom on a Saturday night, we jumped in the car and started driving. I turned around to my wife and said, “Where to?” Only to be told about cafe Paris which is a 5min walk from home. Since we were already in the car and there is never any parking near this place we decide to drive into town for my favourite haunt, Kadosh cafe.
As per usual we couldn’t find any parking around there and decided we would park at Mamilla and walk back up.
Walking through Mamilla we stopped at Roladin (certainly not my favourite cafe) and agreed to get online to wait for a table having somehow forgotten why we came to Mamilla in the first place.
Whilst waiting outside I spotted a dear friend, whom unfortunately we could not host this Shabbat walking towards us and instantly I understood that this is why I was here at this moment, to embrace him and apologize personally. He was with friends and during the introductions, one of the names was the very one which registered earlier in the night. I recalibrated my observation about the reason for why I was there to include needing to meet this person.
As we had been shmoozing outside for a while, I asked the girl managing the list, “How long?” She told me she had no idea as they were very busy. I turned to my wife to say maybe this is not meant to be and we should just get takeaway coffees, at that moment the girl calls our name and we are ushered into the cafe.
We sit down and my wife proceeds to tell me an interesting observation. As I’m leaning in to hear better, above the din of noise around us, a mobile phone is literally shoved in my face. I look up to see the lady next to us indicating for me to take a picture of her and her elderly mother, naturally, I agree.
They get into their pose and I’m focusing the camera when I see through the screen that the lady’s head is in flames from the candle on their table. I throw down the phone and proceed to pat out the flames on her head with my hands.
After I made sure that the flames were out I removed my hands from her head and made eye contact. The lady said to me “What are you doing?” She hadn’t even realized what transpired.
At this point, after I settled down and washed my hands from the smell of burnt chicken feathers, I recalibrated the events of the evening and this now became the focal point for why I was there last night to save her disfigurement or perhaps her life even.
I said to the lady, “you should say Grace”, she agreed and instantly took out a prayer book and was saying many prayers of thanks.
So after an eventful evening, I had to further reflect and recalibrate. Perhaps I was chosen to be there at that time to bring this lady closer to GOD and perhaps that was the nuance whilst everything else was just the stimulus required for me to be the vehicle of GOD’s will.
I’m in awe of the minutiae of events which culminated in the revelation of a divine plan, and being a part of it. I simply felt I had to share. #markbaranov
