"АМЕРИКАНКА" и другие рассказы»⁠⁠

"When I was about 20 I lived in St. Petersburg, Russia for a semester teaching English to children. It was an interesting but difficult experience for me – times were very difficult there – economic crisis of 1998 – money worth nothing – stores were empty – people begging everywhere – I couldn’t help all of them. I was very depressed about my surroundings and the horrible injustices of the world.

One day on my way to church I was changing trams and waiting for the next one when a man approached me and asked for money. I honestly didn’t have any since I was on my way to church and then back home – so I said no and turned away from me and started to cry – and then he screamed and held his hands up and yelled out to God “why? Why? Can’t you see me? Why don’t you help me?” and he fell down on his hands and knees.

I was horrified – my tram came right then and I got on but when I arrived at school where the English speaking branch met I stood outside and couldn’t go in. I felt sick inside – the thought of going in and sitting with my well dressed American and British friends and talking about faith, hope and charity while the world around us seemed to be cold and starving made me ill. I couldn’t see how God could allow this to happen. I turned around and went back home. I didn’t go back to church for a month of two. I did resolve my spiritual crisis and I’ll explain how that happened but first... Isaiah 49: 13 – 16

This scripture has a bit of surprise ending. You think the correct answer to the question “can a mother forget her own child that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?” should be ‘no’. It is impossible for a woman to forget her own child. But in fact, it is not. The strongest bond of love that we can possibly imagine here on this earth is the bond between mother and child. How could this love ever fail? But, our mortal love does fail us sometimes. Our mortal love is not perfect. We are all fallible and imperfect beings living in a very imperfect world – we are hopeless unless we align ourselves with the only true hope that exists. We have a hope in a Savior with perfect, comprehensive and immortal love. His love and redemption overcome mortality. His love overcomes our imperfect love – it overcomes the pain and hurt and it overcomes even death. We have a hope in Christ. He has literally graven us in the palms of His hands. He will not forget us. And we are His. MAB."

* "АМЕРИКАНКА" и другие рассказы» - сборник произведений, 2020 года. История любви, рассказанная в письмах. Действие повести разворачивается в XXI веке, и география произведения очень широка. Книга о психологии отношений, борьбе идеалов и поиске настоящей любви.