Unexpected Kind Words

[The Lord said,] “Forget all that [has happened in the past]—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun!” Isaiah 43:18-19

One Saturday in Michigan wasn’t going well. I was having trouble balancing the checkbook yet again, and my car mechanic said the rocker arm (whatever that is) had to be replaced. I wanted to run away but settled for taking my children for hamburgers. When we entered the restaurant, I saw one of my former students, I’ll call her Donna, working there as a waitress.

Oh, good, I thought sarcastically. I’m tired and discouraged, and now I run into one of the most troublesome students I’ve had in fifteen years of teaching.

I could still see her in the front row of fifth-hour classics class, arms folded and eyes daring me to make the lesson interesting. Well, I wasn’t going to disappoint my children by going to another restaurant. I would just pretend I hadn’t seen her.

Lord, just keep us from being seated in her section, please, I prayed inwardly. So where did the hostess lead us? Right to Donna’s section, of course. But as I started to ask for a booth near the window, Donna spotted us and came rushing over.

“Mrs. Aldrich! This is so neat!”

Sure, it’ll be easier to poison me, I thought. But I managed a feeble smile.

“Guess what!” she said. “I’m a Christian now!”

My mouth dropped open, but Donna bubbled on. “My sister got saved at college,” she said. “And it bugged me she was always witnessing to me. Then I’d go to your class, and while we were studying the Greeks and Romans, you’d bring in something interesting from the Bible, and I’d get angry all over again. But I couldn’t get what you both said out of my mind. And last year, I got saved!”

I was too choked up to talk, so I gave her a hug. God had encouraged me by placing me exactly where I didn’t want to be. And he showed me that words—her sister’s and mine—had pointed Donna toward heaven. —SANDRA

Lord, I’m quick to order you around, telling you to keep me away from all situations and people who make me uncomfortable. Help me to get my instructions from you instead of trying to give them to you.

Jesus did not come to explain away suffering or remove it. He came to fill it with his presence. —PAUL CLAUDEL (1868–1955), FRENCH POET, DRAMATIST, AND DIPLOMAT

From the book