EVERY day there’s news of a cruiseship visiting the city and ads inviting people for the best times of their lives.
“Ah!” I tell myself, “How beautiful to have the sun on my face and the sea spread out in front like a grand picture!” And as I day dream of such luxury, a cruise ship story comes to my mind:
Her name was Carol, and she was eighteen. She was on a one-week cruise of the Hawaiian Islands.
It was a wonderful cruise with friendly people on board, but for days the others on the cruise had watched as Carol walked around with a limp and knew she had on an artificial left leg.
Today was the last day of the cruise and a talent night when all the passengers participated in a contest. It was finally Carol’s turn. She came on stage wearing neither shorts nor Hawaiian garb, but a full length dress. She looked beautiful.
She walked up to the microphone and said, “I know you’ve been looking at me all week and wondering about my fake leg. I thought I should tell you what happened. I was in a motorcycle accident. I almost died, but they kept giving me blood and my pulse came back.”
“They amputated my leg below my knee and later they amputated through the knee. I spent seven months in the hospital – seven months with intravenous antibiotics to fight infection.”
She paused a moment and then continued, “If there’s one thing that happened to me at that time is that my faith became very real to me.”
Suddenly a hush swept over the ship. The waitresses stopped serving drinks. The glasses stopped tinkling. Everybody was focused on the tall eighteen year old girl. She said, “I look at you girls who walk without a limp, and I wish I could walk that way.
I can’t, but this is what I’ve learned, and I want leave it with you: “It’s not how you walk, but who walks with you!”
At this point she paused again and said, “I’d like to sing a song about my friend who walks with me,” and she sang” And he alks with me and, He talks to me, And He tells me I am His own, And the joy we share, In our time of prayer, None other has ever known!
“Thank you!” There was not a dry eye, not a life that wasn’t touched that night on board that cruise near Hawaii.
I wonder who walks with you as you limp through life with broken plans and shattered dreams.
Remember what Carol said on board that luxury ship, “Its not how you walk but who walks with you..!”
