A Heart’s True Nature
Hi friends, this is Joni Eareckson Tada and welcome to Joni and Friends.
John Blanchard stood up from the bench, straightened his Army uniform, and studied the crowd of people making their way through Grand Central Station. He looked for the girl whose heart he knew, but whose face he didn’t, the girl with the rose. His interest in her had begun 13 months before in a Florida library. Taking a book off the shelf he’d found himself intrigued, not with the words of the book, but with the notes penciled in the margin. The soft handwriting reflected a thoughtful soul and insightful mind.
In the front of the book, he discovered the previous owner’s name, Miss Hollis Maynell. With time and effort he located her address. She lived in New York City. He wrote her a letter introducing himself and inviting her to correspond. But the next day he was shipped overseas for service in World War II.
During the next year and one month the two grew to know each other through the mail. Each letter was a seed falling on a fertile heart. A romance was budding. Blanchard requested a photograph, but she refused. Miss Maynell felt that if he really cared, it wouldn’t matter what she looked like.
When the day finally came for him to return from Europe, they scheduled their first meeting – 7:00 at Grand Central Station New York.
“You’ll recognize me,” she had written, “by the red rose I’ll be wearing on my lapel.” So at 7:00 sharp he was at the station looking for a girl whose heart he loved, but whose face he’d never seen.
Mr. Blanchard noticed a young woman coming toward him, her figure long and slim. Blonde hair. Eyes, blue as flowers. Dressed in a pale green suit. She was like springtime come alive.
He started toward her, entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. As he moved, a provocative smile curved her lips. “Going my way, sailor?” Almost uncontrollably he made one step closer to her, and then he saw Hollis Maynell.
She was standing almost directly behind the girl. A woman well past 40, graying hair, plump. The girl in the green suit was walking quickly away. He felt as though he were split in two, so keen was his desire to follow her, and yet so deep was his longing for the woman whose spirit had upheld his own.
And there she stood. Mr. Blanchard did not hesitate. This would not be love, but it would be something perhaps even better than love, a friendship for which he must ever be grateful.
He squared his shoulders and saluted. He felt choked by the bitterness of disappointment.
“I’m Lieutenant John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?”
The woman’s face broadened into a tolerant smile. “I don’t know what this is about, son,” she answered, “but the young lady in the green suit who just went by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, that I should tell you that she’s waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said it was some kind of test!”
It’s not difficult to understand and admire Miss Maynell’s wisdom. The true nature of a heart is seen in its response to the unattractive. “Tell me whom you love,” a wise person once wrote, “and I will tell you who you are.”
And once again, let me remind you of our website. Come by and visit us at any time. It’s joniradio.org. God’s blessings on you until next time when we get together for Joni and Friends.
“Appointment with Love” written by S.I. Kishor, 1943
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31 Days Toward Passionate Faith
You have been called from death to life, from doubt to faith, from apathy to passion! Joni shares daily inspiration to guide you on your own life’s journey.
