Brennan Manning, the author, was working in a leper colony outside of New Orleans when he met Yolanda. A beautiful woman who has had her beauty taken away by leprosy. Her ex-husband had forbidden her children to visit her. Brennan Manning is told that she is dying and visits her one last time.
I anointed Yolanda and prayed with her. As I turned around to put the top back on the bottle of oil, the room was filled with a brilliant light. It had been raining when I came in; I didn't even look up, but said, "Thanks, Abba, for the sunshine. I bet that'll cheer her up."
As I turned back to look at Yolanda - and if I live to be three hundred years old I'll never be able to find the words to describe what I saw - her face was like a sunburst over the mountains, like one thousand sunbeams streaming out of her face literally so brilliant I had to shield my eyes.
I said, "Yolanda, you appear to be very happy."
With her slight Mexican-American accent she said, "Oh Father, I am so happy."
I then asked her, "Will you tell me why you're so happy?"
She said, "Yes, the Abba of Jesus just told me He would take me home today."
I vividly remember the hot tears that began rolling down my cheeks. After a lengthy pause, I asked just what the Abba of Jesus said.
Yolanda said:
Come now My love. My lovely one, come.
For you, the winter has passed, the snows are over and gone,
the flowers appear in the land,
the season of joyful songs has come.
The cooing of the turtledove
is heard in our land.
Come now, My love. My Yolanda, come.
Let Me see your face. And let Me hear your voice,
for your voice is sweet and your face is beautiful.
Come now, My love, My lovely one, come.
Six hours later her little leprous body was swept up into the furious love of her Abba. Later that same day, I learned from the staff that Yolanda was illiterate. She had never read the Bible, or any book for that matter, in her entire life. I surely had never repeated those words to her in any of my visits. I was, as they say, a man undone.
