Jenny and Erin

Why is it that the things that most impact our lives enter relatively unnoticed? The decisions that change the course of our lives are not typically the ones that keep us up at night. Rather, they are the decisions we make quickly and easily because they do not appear to matter. It’s the same with people. The people who impact us the most usually are not the people you would expect. Rather, they tend to enter your life quietly and without much fanfare. This is how Jenny came into mine.

The summer I met Jenny I was working on my graduate internship at her company. Early into the internship it became strikingly clear that I wasn’t going to be given much, if anything, to do. My summer was going to be spent chained to a desk in my office. To make matters worse, my office was not an actual office. It was a very poorly converted bathroom, complete with a flimsy accordion door, a cheap laminate floor and a toilet paper holder still mounted in the wall. Could it be much worse? As I sat day after day in the 4 x4 foot bathroom, staring at my reflection in the full length bathroom mirror, I dreamed of having something to do. It was about this time that Jenny entered my bathroom, er office, and invited me to hers.

As I walked into Jenny’s office I realized she did not spend her days in a bathroom. She had a palace. She had a picture window overlooking a courtyard, artwork hanging on the walls and room for a desk, a table and chairs, bookshelves and two closets without being in any way cramped. This was definitely not a bathroom. As I took all of this in I realized I wasn’t her only guest. Standing prominently in the corner was Jesus.

Yes, you read right, Jesus was standing in the corner of Jenny’s office. This wasn’t a picture, or a poor impersonator, but a gigantic marble statue. This Jesus looked at least 100 years old and stood taller than me with his arms outstretched, making his presence all the more imposing. I was all together unsure what to say about the statue and I did not want to offend Jenny, so I didn’t say anything. It felt similar to not talking about an elephant in the room – except it was Jesus. My eyes kept drifting back to the statue as Jenny explained the project without so much as a hint to why there was a life-sized statue of Jesus in the corner.

I continued returning to Jenny’s office, because honestly it was much more appealing than my bathroom. As time passed, I learned she was storing the statue in her office as a favor to her employer until they decided what to do with it. She didn’t want it shoved in a closet because she has a high regard for people, religions and sacred things. And typical of Jenny, once she made a decision she did not feel a need to explain herself. As we talked I realized she thought about things differently than I ever had, or more importantly, differently than anyone else I ever met had. And as a bonus she had a wicked sense of humor. What can I say, how many other people know someone who has literally given Jesus sanctuary?

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This entry was posted in Miscellaneous on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007 by Erin Dietrich. You can follow responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.