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What we bring to Life

By Richard Thompson

Years ago, there was a young emotional man, full of change, full of passion—a teenager just starting his life. He was gentle but cruel at the same time; consumed by anger but also very sensitive to the changes his teenage life presented. Like most young adults, time for change was necessary, and relationships, as love seemed, were too much to conquer.

He remembers walking down Mayaro Beach scared like a wet hound, lost, drunk with despair. His heart had been broken and life would never be the same. After disappearing for two hours into the late night, a good friend took the time and found him wandering, searching for an answer to life somewhere on that seemingly endless Mayaro runway-of-life.

Little did this young man know that God was watching, as He always does, looking at his soul turning into a man, as his heart began a significant journey. As he sat there, sheltered by the fluttering coconut trees, tears overflowing, he felt a true sense of evil, a true presence of a demon that thrived on his weakness.

Without any hesitation he turned to our Mother Mary and prayed for protection. Help was needed. Then suddenly, warmth reached his heart, a light, a beam of strength that quickly ended his tears —a true sense of safety.

He opened his eyes, and the pitch-black sky became filled with a rare sense of joy, a brightness of love and hope.

As he looked slowly toward the everlasting sea; the waves broke timelessly, and the Mayaro breeze strengthened. Then, without warning, a shadow appeared with an angelic aura.

It was tall, behind him, standing over his seated area. He asked himself, “should I look behind me? Should I stand, run, bolt into the sea? Who was this behind me?” But then he realised who it was. It was Christ Himself, and He was there to send a message, not then, not at that moment, but sometime in the future.

Imagine, here is this young man now learning what life brings and suddenly his life changes, everything is different. God sent His Son to protect one of His broken children. Imagine having the time for one lost soul here in Trinidad, miles away from everyone, deep into the night on Mayaro beach of all places.

His teenage despair ended, and his young, abandoned, entrapped, naïve heart never looked back and even at the time, he didn’t really know what happened.

He looks back now and realises how important his life has become, that not only was he meant to share a message, but he was also meant to touch the hearts of men, to get them to believe that when all else fails there is always hope.

When every corner is full of despair and evil lurks in the darkest passage of time, God’s light will aways be brighter, stronger and will never fade into the wind.

God’s message is clear. What we believe to be the end is only the beginning of a greater life. That faith, as much as we search for it, is part of our human spirit. Faith is not something we should search for; it’s embedded within our DNA. Faith is within our minds, our souls. Faith isn’t there to guide us or calm us or even change us. Faith is God’s way of reminding us that we are never alone.

What we bring to life is our kindness, our human spirit of hope and without despair, there will never be happiness. Without death, there will never be new life, and we need to truly appreciate why we are here in the first place.

Once we touch God, then everything else changes, just like how I changed late in the Mayaro night, under the casuarina pine trees of Harriman’s Estate, lost, broken but sending a message of light from God 35 years later.

We are all safe, even if sometimes it never seems that way.