On the 86 coming to work today I was witnessed to. I was sitting on the foremost single seat, minding my business, when this women asked me, “Jew have Essus in your heart?” I had to ask her a couple of times to repeat herself, but I finally realized she was asking me, “Do you have Jesus in you heart?” She began to explain to me that he loves me, died for me, is knocking on my heart and keeping me awake at night. She had a little flip-book with several verses on individual pieces of paper. She would read them to me, moving her finger along below each word as if she were a mother reading to her child. (Instead of a full stop at the end, though, she had colons. I’m not sure why.) At one point she asked me if I believed in God. When I told her I didn’t she didn’t really know how to deal with it, it seems. She returned to talking about how Jesus died for me, how he loves me, and so on. She also explained that eventually God would close the door. I didn’t know how to explain that any God with such conditional love as the God she is describing exhibits is not worthy of my love/respect.

She was, in all honesty, sweet. She was doing what she thought was necessary. Of course the question is, was she doing this because she wants me not to go to hell, or because she’s afraid God demands this of her for her salvation? I’m sure she couldn’t even answer that question completely.