On Flight to Ethiopia

Thursday, June 3, 2010
Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

Three things never cease to intrigue me: accents, twins, and beauty
perceptions. I will skip explaining the first two, but the third
cannot go unmentioned. I have seen and observed many different people
in these past three days of traveling, but my greatest fascination
rests on two striking individuals that crossed my path yesterday.
~~
The time had finally come for us passengers to board the plane which
would us to Addis Ababa the following morning. While waiting in line,
I couldn’t help but overhear a big argument taking place at the
departure gate. I looked over and was a little surprised at who it was
that was arguing. I thought it couldn’t be, but here she was – the
young, pretty, well-dressed airline cashier whom I had seen before at
the check-in counter. Now she was yelling at a poor passenger who had
misunderstood the weight allowance of his carry-ons. After that little
issue was taken care of, and we were now making our way inside the
plane, Ms. Pretty and Rude kept coming in and out of the line, making
it apparent to all of us how stressed, annoyed, and upset she was
feeling while directing one passenger after another to do this or
that. I had initially looked at her and thought she was a beautiful
lady. My perception of her beauty immediately changed when I heard her
angry words and saw her rude gestures. What a shame.
My next surprise awaited me a couple minutes later when I entered the
airplane and spotted my seat from a distance. “Oh great,” I thought,
“I don’t want to sit there!.” Not only was my seat in the middle of
the row again, but I had to sit next to a man that gave me unusual
feelings of repulsion. You see, this man’s face was a bit…disfigured.
He looked scary and mean. Nevertheless, that’s whom I was destined to
sit next to for the following eight hours so I decided to make the
best of the situation.
I made my way to my seat, sat down, and tried my best to be nice and
polite, even though I did not feel like making any sort of
conversation. I was exhausted from spending the previous day walking
all over London, airports, trains, and buses with a heavy backpack and
with very little sleep from my previous overnight flight. After some
time, however, we struck a conversation. When I briefly told him where
I was headed and what I would be doing, he asked me if I was a
Christian. Then, this “ugly” gentleman proceeded to tell me the most
beautiful story of his conversion.
His disfigured face and skin was a result of his ex-girlfriend
pouring boiling hot oil over his body while he was sleeping one night.
My heart sunk at the thought that somebody could do such a terrible
thing. I felt anger and sudden pity because of the atrocities that
this man had gone through. My feelings, however, were greatly
contrasted by his – I saw no bitterness or resentment in him. He spoke
kindly and even was excusing his ex-girlfriend’s actions, dismissing
them by saying that it was the Devil who made her do it. Soon I found
myself spell-bound by the incredible testimony of Cosmen. He proceeded
to tell me that while he was on life-support for ten days following
“the accident”, he had a vision. He was taken up to heaven by two
angels, where he met Jesus and God the Father, who didn’t allow Cosmen
to see His face. He saw a throne room where there were many chairs,
but some were empty. He described to me in detail the streets of gold
and his encounter with God.
He explained that before the accident he didn’t believe in God.
During the vision, though, he knew he had been running away from the
very One that loved him. Then, when God “sent him back to earth” in
the vision, and told him to tell others about his experience and
dream, he didn’t want to. He didn’t want to leave his Lord’s presence.
But he had to come back and tell the world. When he woke up, he was in
the hospital room when they were about to take him off life-support
and let him die. But he didn’t die. He lives and to this day he
testifies of the wonderful love and mercy of God to anyone that’s
willing to listen. He gets lots of invitations to speak in churches
and share his story.
Cosmen is one of the most humble, peaceful, and sincere Christians I
have ever met. His experience is genuine and although he admits that
he doesn’t know everything, he continues to grow and study the Bible
in order to know God better.
My tiredness wore off for a while after this, and we were soon engaged
in a little Bible study! I tried to answer his questions about the
Mark of the Beast and Revelation 13. We touched on Hebrews and how to
increase our faith. We shared Bible verses that have encouraged us to
share our faith with other people. I showed him the couple of books I
had with me that had tremendously helped me in my walk with God and he
was so interested that he promise me when he gets back home he will
buy the Great Controversy, Desire of Ages, and Studying Together by
Mark Finley. After a few hours of talking and sharing, my repulsion
toward this man had turned to deep admiration and even attraction
towards his character.
So this is when I realized that our perceptions of beautiful people
can be so terribly skewed sometimes. One lady had it on the outside,
but when she opened her mouth her inward ugly scars resurfaced. As for
Cosmen, his outward ugly scars was what had made him beautiful on the
inside. Lord, may I never be quick to judge a person’s worth and
beauty by what my eyes first behold. Help me to be beautiful on the
inside. Because after all, that’s what really counts!