The Sylvr Pen

“Before they call I will answer…” (Isaiah 65:24)

Thinking how God often answers before we call reminds me of a story an old lady told me, twenty-some years ago, about something that happened to her as a little girl.

An MK (missionary kid) living in remote South America, she got a hankering one day for a pair of red shoes. So she asked God for some in her prayers.

Imagine her parents’ consternation. Red shoes! What made her come up with that? How could God give her red shoes in such a place? Maybe they could at least talk her into black or brown… But no, she was certain: she’d prayed for red shoes, and so God would give her red shoes. The next supply container should come soon…

Now understand, at that time red shoes didn’t abound anywhere, let alone in her surroundings, and the next container was already sitting in some steamer long before she’d prayed. Her parents would just have to let her be disappointed and then explain how these things (don’t) work.

Shipment arrived. They unpacked, one item after another. She watched eagerly. It was emptying out. They were reaching the bottom…

But wait, down there, under those last few items… You guessed it: red shoes, in her size!

She wasn’t even amazed. She knew all along God would send her red shoes.

How do you explain this? This isn’t even “acceptable” prayer.

But it was a child’s innocent, believing prayer, and I am repeatedly amazed (and delighted) at how often children’s off-the-wall prayers get answered. Whatever the reason, before she called, God answered.

“Before they call I will answer…” (Isaiah 65:24).

He did it! He answered before I called. He even answered before I knew I had the need!…

Last week I posted the bad news about my eyesight.

What saddened me most was that vision blurring meant no more solo driving to see kids and grandkids. It would be both dangerous and irresponsible. Confessing this to my husband, and the terrible driving mistake my poor vision had caused, I experienced the “emotional punctuation” psychologist Harriet Braiker says shows you what you care about: unexpected lump in throat, tears pushing past my will’s resistance. I cared. This mattered.

“We’ll get you there somehow,” my husband said.

Then I realized! God had already provided, had already arranged all the details and stirred someone to call me specifically about them: my next-door neighbor! Talk about convenience!

And talk about “coincidence”! I knew her two kids had settled in the same area as my youngest son–but I didn’t know her daughter and son-in-law now live within walking distance of him in the same city. Lynn had called to suggest we share rides to visit them! And in sixteen years of living next door, I don’t remember her ever phoning me before!

God makes His presence most evident that way–by providing right at our crisis point of need–or of impossible hoping… as in the next two posts about children’s shoes, about God again preparing the answer before His beloved calls…

Make known His deeds among the peoples! (Ps 105:1)

Ever worry about finances–the “what ifs”? (What if I get sick or injured, or lose my job or pension? What if the rent keeps rising to the sky? What if the economy goes belly up?)

I did that kind of fretting once. No more! I hope I never do again. With a heavenly Father like I have, there’s no reason I should.

Now for some posting I’ve been eagerly looking forward to: making known God’s deeds in my little “insignificant” life. I want everyone to know: God really does the outlandish things He says He’ll do: If we “Seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, all [our material needs] will be added unto” us (Mt 6:33)–and other needs as well.

Something I want so much for you to do is make time this week, sometime, to listen to at least part of John Piper’s recorded message at this site (and if only part, then hear the rest next week). It’s about George Muller. If you can grab hold of his life’s message with willing belief, it’ll change your own life, big time. I grabbed hold of its core principle before I even heard of him, and did it ever change mine!

Do you know about George Muller? Most famous for the orphanages he initiated and maintained, in his lifetime George Muller housed, fed, clothed, and cared for over 10,000 orphans–beginning with…nothing: no building, staff, equipment, food–or funds! Nothing! And he never borrowed or asked anyone for anything or even let anyone know emergency needs–except God! His only fund-raising method was prayer.

Why? Because the most important purpose of his venture was not to care for the fatherless, but to demonstrate to the world that God will provide for those who trust Him and “seek first” His kingdom. He was a crusader against financial worry.

Muller’s life demonstrated the active faithfulness of God to supply for ministry (and orphans). What I’ve experienced in my life has demonstrated His active faithfulness just to supply the personal needs of an ordinary little flawed believer. And I have so much to share with you, I don’t know where to start!

Originally, I planned to start… well, at the beginning. But then God did something already this month that shows how He even does Isaiah 65:24. Next post.

Bad news last week at the optometrist’s. New glasses will do nothing to fix the blurriness. It’s time to see the eye surgeon. I have some early cataracts, but there’s more that may put cataract surgery out of the question — “something else”  that my optometrist isn’t naming, but wants the specialist to look at. I’ve also noticed “something else” happening with my vision sometimes…

So maybe you guessed it: This eye problem is what obscured the roads and signs I wrote about in “Wrong Way.”  What I interpreted as “poor visibility” was poor vison! 

Therefore I must face a hard fact: Driving solo to distant or less-than-familiar places (like to see the kids and grandkids) must stop, at least for months, maybe forever. Major disappointment!

What’s more, the physical ability I always said I’d most hate to lose was my eyesight, because nearly all the things I most enjoy involve my eyes, heavily: reading, writing, blogging, emailing, sewing, quilting, weaving, scrapbooking, decoupage, embroidery—all different kinds of close and detailed work. I’m already struggling to see well enough for some of these.

So, know what I said to God, while driving out on other errands, after the doctor’s prognosis?

“Thank You.”

Then I cried.

Ephesians 5:17-20 commands “giving thanks always for all things,” not just things that please us. 

It’s repeated in Ps 105:1; 106:1; 107:1; 118:1; 136:1—“Give thanks to the LORD”?

But they don’t tell me not to cry.

These commands aren’t about liking, but doing. If we’re racked with illness, grief, or confusion, liking what’s happening or working up exuberant feelings may exceed our ability. But saying, “Thank you, God,” doesn’t.

What’s more, when we thank God only for what we like, we act as judges, passing verdicts on His actions. In thanking Him for both “good” and “bad,” we surrender to trusting Him, acknowledging Him as Lord, truly wise, truly good, and that, though we may never know in this life why He’s brings or allows some “bad things”  in our lives, He’s working everything always toward His children’s eternal best, as well as His own glory (Rom 8:28), and remarkable blessing can arise from the thanking.

This has already happened with this eye thing.

Not in a flash. Driving home later, repeating Job’s words, “The LORD gives and the LORD takes away; blessed be the name…” I choked up again—and again before bed, as I talked with Husband. But by the time I fell asleep, I was already seeing good that God was doing, and by next evening my tears seemed foolish.

In fact, more heart-blessing arose from what God showed me than one post can tell. So, more later.

I read an interesting news article last night about the “culture clash” of southern and northern responses to the snow bogging everything down. Emails from our kids/grandkids in South Carolina bear it out, even though they moved there from the “driven east” (New Jersey).

Down south, people have just parked their cars or never gone out in them, shut down their businesses, stayed home with their kids (because school is shut down for days, too)–and are having a blast! But in the north, a lot more people are complaining and clamoring about public services, or government, or both, not working fast and well enough to keep those roads cleared.

Of course, the snow is a great novelty down south. Some folks are experiencing it for the first time in their lives. And the East Coast up north has gotten hammered already, and people there are weary of trudging through the mess. Novelty has become annoyance.

It’s a little like our cats, less than a year old, who party wildly whenever a few flakes fall and today are going bonkers with delight. Next year, my husband says, they’ll be familiar with it, and it won’t be such a big deal anymore.

Ah, to be children at heart, to respond again like children–southern children, experiencing snow and snowballs and sledding, and even shoveling, as a wonder and novelty and delight.

(As for me, today: I’m just loving the white stuff outside! And thanking God I still have some of that childlike appreciation–for at least until the month of March–or, well, maybe February…)