God Sometimes Works In Not So Mysterious Ways

I'm in the Tampa airport early this morning, on my way to Macon, GA to conduct the funeral service of Marjorie Sims. Marjorie and Jim have been dear friends and I served as their pastor almost 30 years ago. I conducted Jim's funeral a couple of years ago and now Marjorie joins him.

I was thinking this morning of how God used them and other friends to bless my family back then. One particular incident that happened with them still makes me smile today.

I was a struggling pastor in a small country church, barely able to keep food on the table and pay my bills. My four children were all still very young. There was a time when they became obsessed with a desire to go to Disney World and asked if we could go.

I told them that we didn't have the money to go there, but that we would pray and ask the Lord to make a way for us to go sometime. Immediately, they all started praying for that desire. Every night, when our family prayed together they would each pray, "Lord, please give us money so we can go to Disney World." Night after night, their prayer was the same.

As summer came and the weeks passed, it began to be apparent to me that we weren't going to be able to go to Disney World. Melanie and I tried to distract the kids from the idea by doing other things with them, but they kept praying. I hated to see their prayer go unanswered but there was nothing I could do about the situation.

One day there was a knock at the door. When I answered, there was Jim Sims (Marjorie's husband) and Clarence Ivester. I invited them in. We sat down in the living room, when Jim suddenly stood up, walked over to me and dropped five hundred dollars on my lap. "Take your kids to Disney World," he said in a matter-of-fact way.

"What made you do this?" I asked in disbelief. "Well," Jim answered, "it's just something that Marjorie and I and Clarence and Shirley want to do." I was amazed.

That afternoon I went to the bank and exchanged the larger bills for one dollar bills That night, before we prayed I took out the cash and began to throw it up in the air around my children. "Look!" I said to them. "The Lord answered our prayers!" We were all thrilled.

An amazing answer to prayer, don't you think?

Well, here's, as they say, the rest of the story. Later we learned that our oldest daughter, Amy was going to Sunday School every week where Shirely Ivester was her Sunday School teacher. And every week, when the children prayed in Sunday School, Amy would pray aloud, "Lord, give us the money to go to Disney World!"

Shirley heard that prayer week after week and told Marjorie. The ladies talked to their husband and the result was five hundred dollars on my lap days later.

Did God answer my children's prayer? Of course! He used the compassion of Jimmy and Marjorie and of Clarence and Shirley. The result was that my children were able to take their first trip to Disney World.

God does work in mysterious ways sometimes. At other times, we discover it wasn't so mysterious after all. Either way, it's Him.

As I think of my friends, Marjorie and Jim, this morning, I know they are together again in heaven. And I'm thankful for how they both enriched my family's life - not just with our first trip to Disney world, but in many ways.