What
happens when an old white woman pulls out of her street one Wednesday morning
and notices a young Black man sporting dreadlocks carrying four or five bright
yellow bags of supplies and a big jug of juice on the sidewalk just ahead? Almost sounds like a set-up for a joke,
doesn’t it? However, this is no joke but
the beginning of a real life experience that could qualify for at least one
story line in an episode of the new television show called “God Friended Me.”
This show has three, young, main characters, one white, one black and one Indian,
plus God, an unseen presence sending friend notifications via Facebook to the
professing atheist in the group. Once
the atheist yields to accepting the friend requests, he becomes an amazing
participant in God’s providential plans to bless these “friends,” all people in
need. The plot lines almost seem
contrived, yet the Bible does present a God who indeed orders lives
providentially for His good purposes for them and for the “common good.” I also buy into this picture of a loving God
because I have been the grateful recipient of such divine ordering.
Back
to the old white woman and the young black man’s encounter on a sunny, pleasant
summer day. I am the old white woman who
is not in the habit of offering people rides although I have spotted a lady who
regularly walks to her job at County Market and given her a chance to ride
instead. This time when I lowered the window
and summoned the walker, he looked a bit surprised but put his bags in the back
and then got in the front with me.
Although he lived only a few blocks down the road, by the time I dropped
him off I had discovered he was the person I had been praying for to help me
with some yard work and other little jobs at my duplex.
Actually,
I had been becoming a bit impatient with the Almighty about a new source of
help after Izabella, a student/worker at the EIU Rec Center, finished her
degree and went back to Chicago. She and
I had become friends over the few months she assisted me; I even took her to
dinner to celebrate her graduation before she left. Thinking that connection had worked well, I
was canvassing the staff at the Rec center when the fall semester began. But Brandon, my God-ordained new friend, was a
surprisingly good match. He and his 13
year old son have both come to the house now and one is kind and
helpful. LeVante could not have been
nicer even when he was doing the main work to clean out my large garbage and
recycling containers. This is also a
family who needs some extra money even though both mom and dad work. I love to watch how God matches people’s
needs and desires.
So,
was it divine ordering that put me on the same street at the same time this nice
young man would be “walking errands” for his family? I feel certain such timing was working out God’s
answer to my appeals for help. God may
not work through friend requests from Facebook; after all, His ways are higher
and better than ours. But, just as “God
Friended Me” portrays a God who providentially works in lives to bring goodness
and blessing to needy people, so does the God in the real world who hears and
answers our prayers—eventually.
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