on Christmas Eve

by Joanna adino

Solange was one of several dozen patients I met while caroling with friends in a hospital one Christmas Eve. Each patient was suffering and hoped for a little love and comfort, but young Solange—in bandages and casts from head to toe—was special. As we sang for her, she began to cry. Soon she was sobbing almost uncontrollably.

“Jesus loves and cares for you,” I reassured her.

Then Solange explained that she and her family had been in a car accident. Her father, mother, and sister were all killed. She had lost her family. Solange had been in a coma for three days, but had survived against all odds.

I prayed with her to receive Jesus as her Savior, and gave her two Christmas posters I’d brought with me—one with a text on the back about Heaven, and the other with a text about Jesus and His great personal love for each of us. I also prayed for her healing and promised to visit her again.

“Joanna,” she said, “my heart is touched because you are here, because you are concerned for me, a total stranger, and because you would spend your Christmas Eve with me.”

Solange remained in the hospital for three more months, and I visited her as often as I could. Each time I took her one of the Family’s inspirational cassette tapes such as Fear Not or How to Win, or read to her from the Bible to encourage her and strengthen her faith. By the time Solange was released from the hospital, the miracle that began in her life on Christmas Eve was complete; she was happy, whole, and recovering from her emotional trauma.

Joanna Adino is a member of the Family International in Brazil.