God thinks outside the Balaam. (part 2)

God’s first attempt to get Balaam’s attention was to send an angel in his path. This divine portent was not enough, however, and a more practical approach was needed. So God enlisted the help of the donkey. While Balaam the prophet was blind to the obvious presence of a sword-drawn angel standing in front of him, his donkey could see it quite clearly and wisely avoided the angelic showdown. There are many among the faithful in the church who are the logical ones to perceive a divine truth. But such is not always the case. Last Sunday I experienced a horribly sad situation in which a local Spanish-speaking family woke to find their 10 month-old not breathing. The baby girl was dead on arrival at the hospital, apparently the result of several serious, chronic, illnesses the baby had gone through since birth. I arrived at the hospital and found the two sobbing parents on either side of their baby, holding her life-less hands. The family’s sorrow was compounded by the fact they spoke no English, had little extended family here, and had no financial resources to deal with the prospect of a funeral and burial for their child. They turned to the chaplain for help. I in turn took the next seemingly logical step and began to contact local churches with ministries to the Hispanic communities. My desire was for the family to have someone who spoke their language, could provide them with emotional support and assist them financially or logistically with funeral arrangements. Unfortunately, the baby picked a bad time to die. It was straight up 11 a.m on Sunday morning. I guess everyone was too preoccupied with worshipping God to deal with this couple’s untimely problem. 5 phone calls to churches and 4 ministerial voicemails later, I finally closed my cell phone. The minutes passed as now the family was alone, waiting for help, the baby having been taken to the coroner. The minutes turned to hours without a single returned phone call from the “emergency-line” voicemails. I finally abandoned my divine plan to begin with the church, realizing that none of my fellow Christian travelers could see the angel standing in front of them in the road. I opened up the yellow-pages and called the first funeral home I could find. The funeral director called me back in minutes, ready to make arrangements to pick up the baby’s body and offered funeral service for free.. He also offered to contact a cemetery that provides free burial space for families in need and agreed to coordinate the entire process. The family was relieved and finally able to go home. The church answering machines remained full. The donkey could see what the prophets could not.