The Lord moves in mysterious ways

William Cowper

In my office is a partially consumed, pineapple lifesaver that I placed in a plastic wrapper over 30 years ago. What would compel a person to save a half-eaten piece of candy for over a quarter of a century? Gratitude! You see it was 27 years ago that Carolyn and I were sitting in the worship next to .our nearly two-year old son who had been happily sucking on that pineapple lifesaver. We looked down in horror to find that he was choking. I swept him up and rushed him downstairs to a classroom where I stood him up on a table to get a better look at him.

His face was blue!

I remember my panic and my fear. I remember looking helplessly at a phone on the wall wondering if I should call 911, but quickly realizing that A.J. did not have that kind of time. I thought of going back upstairs to see if anyone knew what could be done. Then, I prayed.  And I remembered the lessons I had learned on the Heimlich Maneuver from a first aid class I had taken in college a few years earlier, and I placed my thumbs under A.J.'s rib cage and pushed. And the pineapple flavored lifesaver simply popped out...

and A.J. started breathing again!

What has always struck me about that episode is this: A few years earlier I had been sitting in a stupid first aid class learning about the stupid Heimlich Maneuver because I had sprained my stupid ankle and couldn't take a real physical education class like basketball or racquetball. And I (who love sports and hate sitting in classrooms) was mad and feeling sorry for myself for having to take this stupid class that I just knew would never do me any good.

A few years later, my anger and self-pity were replaced with humility and gratitude and joy.

Now I'm not saying that God "sprained" my ankle, knowing that someday I would need the lessons from a class that I otherwise would never have taken even if someone had paid me... nor am I saying that He did not. I don't know how God answers prayers - that's His business - but I do wonder sometimes if He didn't answer the prayer of a panicked young father several years before that prayer was made.

Are you going through something that you do not quite understand the reason for? Are you mad and perhaps feeling a bit sorry for yourself? Maybe what you are going through is not the curse that you think it is. Maybe, just maybe, it is an answer to a prayer that you have yet to pray.

And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him

Romans 8:28, NIV