Mystery of Pani Muchova

Heading into the apartment building, and up to the 7th floor in an elevator this afternoon, Dave and I wondered what was ahead of us.

 

Today was the day we said we'd go visit Pani Muchova, the subject of much discussion with our neighbor over the past month.

A few days ago we finally heard a bit more of the story behind this woman from our neighbor, but still didn't understand the errand she was sending us on: to deliver her needlepoint gift.

The things she told us were: Pani (Mrs.) Muchova is 93 years old, lives with her niece in Frydlant, is a believer, and at some point in our neighbor's life, has prayed for her and her brother. This gift was to thank her for those prayers.

When we arrived at the door, Pani Muchova's niece greeted us there. As we explained who we were and why we had come, she recognized who we were talking about (our neighbor), but wondered why she had made this gift for her aunt. We smiled, and told her we didn't exactly know, but that she asked us to deliver it and so here we are to do that! She warmly welcomed us in (what a dear lady she was), and took us in to meet her aunt.

Pani Muchova, who turned out to be a very sweet woman, was in the middle of her afternoon snack when we walked into the kitchen. She apologized for not getting up, and then wanted to know who we were. Dave got down on his knees to talk to her as she said she couldn't hear well, and began to explain the errand we were on, as well as who we were and what we do here.

Sadly, she didn't remember our neighbor, nor anything about a time that she might have prayed for them. But she had such a sweet look on her face as she told us to thank Danka for the gift.

We asked if we could take some pictures, and then if we could pray for her. When Dave asked if she had any specific requests she said, "I used to have such a good memory, but now I can't remember things and it disturbs me and makes me sad. You can pray that I would remember."

So Dave did, as well as prayed a blessing over her for having lived a faithful life.

While we still don't know much of her story (her niece did tell us that she started going to a Lutheran church in 1986, before Communism fell, when she was nearly 70 years old), we know that she once blessed someone with her prayers, and that someone (our neighbor) never forgot her.

It wasn't the end to this story that we expected. I thought we'd understand why we'd been sent there by our neighbor, or get more of the story filled in by Pani Muchova.

But I know that sometimes God just asks us to be obedient and faithful without understanding. When we all get to heaven someday, maybe it will make sense then!

If nothing else, I hope Pani Muchova was blessed by our neighbor's gift of love today.