The landlord made a scene again.
The rent had been due
for the last six months.
Delphi had tried to hold on.
Selling what she could.
Borrowing money.
Going hungry for days at a time.
But the difficult days
never seemed to end.
She picked up her bag.
She had had enough.
She couldn't wait any longer
for the landlord to throw her out.
She threw in a few things
photographs of her parents
and some important documents
She could not leave behind.
Then she walked out of the house.
She walked without knowing where to go,
tears falling freely down her face.
I wish I had my extended family around me.
Her mother used to talk about them
all the time.
Grandparents.
Uncles.
Aunts.
Cousins.
People she had never really known,
but had always wished were there.
Someone to call her own.
Her parents were both gone now.
Her father first,
taken by a terminal illness.
Then her mother,
taken suddenly by cardiac arrest.
Delphi had spent so much of her life
caring for them,
looking after the home
and tending to their needs.
There had been little time left for anything else
or anyone else.
And now here she was
Without a job,
about to lose her home,
without her parents,
without anyone to turn to.
The evening grew darker.
As the darkness crept closer,
Delphi shuddered.
How will I sleep tonight?
Out here in the open,
in this cold?
She sat alone on the park bench,
hugging herself tightly
as the night settled around her.
Then she remembered
the verse her mother
had made her memorise and repeat
a thousand times
during her childhood:
Deuteronomy 31:8 CJB
8 But Adonai — it is he who will go ahead of you. He will be with you. He will neither fail you nor abandon you, so don’t be afraid or downhearted.”
The words came back to her
like a whisper in the dark.
She looked up at the darkening sky and said
"Father God, please help me.
I don't know what to do or where to go."
Suddenly,
she heard her neighbour
calling out her name.
"Delphi!"
She looked up.
Her neighbour was hurrying towards her,
accompanied by a stranger.
There was something about him
that seemed vaguely familiar.
Delphi stared at him,
trying to place the face
she somehow felt
she had seen before.
Then he spoke her name.
"Delphi..."
She froze.
That voice.
There was something in it
that stirred a painful memory
something that reminded her
so much of her father.
"Dad?" she whispered.
The stranger rushed forward
and held her close.
"I am your father's elder brother."
Delphi stared at him in shock,
her mouth falling open in disbelief.
Could this really be true?
Her uncle.
Family.
The words hardly seemed real.
"Thank God,
I finally found you!"
He looked at her
through tears of happiness.
"I've been searching for you for months,
ever since we came to know
of your mother's passing."
He held her close again.
"Everywhere I went,
I asked about you.
I never stopped looking for you."
Delphi stared at him
in utter disbelief.
What an irony, she thought.
All this time,
she had felt lost and lonely.
And here was someone
who had been searching for her
all along.
Her uncle reached out his hand.
"Come with me, my child.
You are not alone anymore.
Your family is waiting for you
back home in our country."
Delphi looked at his outstretched hand.
For the first time
in a very long time,
she smiled.
"Oh yes, she will!"
Her neighbour exclaimed excitedly.
Delphi nodded slowly, still dazed by it all.
How did all this happen so quickly?
Just hours ago, she had thought
she had nowhere to go.
Now she had a home to look forward to.
An extended family waiting to love her.
And a new future waiting to unfold
As they walked back towards her house,
Her uncle assured her that he would settle
All the outstanding accounts and take
Care of everything with the landlord.
They would return to their homeland
as soon as they could.
Delphi nodded in agreement,
her head still spinning
with everything that had happened.
But beneath the confusion
was something she had not felt
in a very long time.
Hope.
She looked up at the sky
and silently thanked God.
He had not deserted her.
She had never truly been alone.
And perhaps,
after all these years,
She had never really been lost.
She had only been
waiting to be found.
