Intervention!

On Tuesday the weather report called for thunder showers all day.  So, when the cloudy skies lightened up around noon, Piper and I hopped into the car and headed to Fuquay-Varina and our local CVS Pharmacy.  My thought was that once I had Piper in the car and out of any rainfall, that we could use the drive-up window to get the prescription we were almost out of and return home.  Once home I could back the car into the garage and help her out without as much as a drop of rain touching her!

I desperately needed a haircut as well, for I was looking rather scruffy around the edges, but I figured that I’d better not push my luck!  But as we neared the city limits I noticed that the skies over Fuquay were even brighter than at our house.  Then I heard that unmistakable quiet voice inside of me saying, “Go get a haircut for both you and Piper.”  Well, I’ve come to know that voice rather well over the last few years, so I didn’t argue but set my mental GPS to the Kroger Marketplace and the Great Clips salon right next door to the grocery!

The funny thing was that the normal handicap spots right in front of the salon were both taken so I had to go down to the end of the parking lot in order to find a spot wide enough for me to maneuver Piper’s chair around our car.  I almost started to question if I had “really” heard the small still voice inside of me or not since those two spots have always been open when we’ve gone to that shopping center.  But instead, I simply shook my head and parked the distance from the store, figuring that If I had really heard from the Lord that it wasn’t going to rain until we were done and back in the car.

By now it was around 1:00 pm and when we walked into the store there were two gals just standing there waiting for customers!  After all three hairdressers in the store welcomed us… including the one trimming a gentleman’s hair, the gal closest to us walked up to the computer, typed in our phone number and asked who was first... Piper or me!

Once we got to talking with the gal we knew in an instant that God was right about going there on that particular day.  Come to find out that our hairdresser is a longtime Christian, active in her church in Dunn, NC, listens to the same nationally known ministries that we do, and was quite familiar with the ministry where I went to Bible College!  I tell you, it was like old home week for us!  She also knew the Chaplain who ministers to us from Piper’s Hospice group.  From a Christian beliefs standpoint, it was quite a blessing that we had so much in common!

Needless to say, we were both quite blessed after our time spent at Great Clips that day.  And you know… it didn’t start to rain until I got Piper back in the car following our haircuts… then it stopped for a few moments when we got home so that I was able to get Piper out on the driveway and into the garage without getting wet… at all!  What do you think about that?

This morning I found myself quickly looking at John 6:63 where Jesus declared “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh accomplishes nothing.  The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life.” (ISV)  I didn’t get to study out the verse as thoroughly as I would have liked as I was interrupted by an adjuster from our home insurance company and the project manager from our roofing company as our roof was damaged during a thunder/hail storm at the end of last year.  Welcome to North Carolina’s fall weather… We discovered that those not-so-little golf ball size hail storms aren’t too kindly to old shingles!

What I did get from that verse today though, was that God’s Words contain the essence of the spirit and life, in contrast to the things of the world which can’t compare and always fall short of the goal!  I was reminded of Piper’s and my decision after the results came in from the first MRI that Piper had taken late in 2007 at an imaging center in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma.

I remember that moment like it was yesterday.  I was alone that evening (thank God!) and straightening the displays in the power accessories aisle in the Garden Department at my job at the South Tulsa Home Depot when I got the call from our doctor’s office.  The nurse’s report took me by surprise and I had to make a quick exit outside to the back of the covered area where the soils and lawn chemicals were stored. 

It was cold outside and I was reasonably assured that no customers would be shopping out there at that time.  I needed a place to be alone and get my emotions under control!  Once that was accomplished, I quickly realized that in this case according to John 6:63… the flesh and/or the world’s answers to Piper’s prognosis would accomplish NOTHING!  This diagnosis has no cure in the natural…  The only answer we could look forward to finding was with God!

And Surprise!  When I got home that night and tearfully shared the information with Piper, she totally and unequivocally agreed! (I’m being a bit sarcastic here!  Of course, she agreed without even flinching for a moment!  That’s just who she is – full of faith!)

By the time we moved back home two years later, the eyes of our faith were totally focused on God and His Word.  God and His ways for healing Piper were our only agenda.  To be honest, it kind of took us by surprise when some Christian folks close to us immediately looked to the world for answers to Piper’s needs.  I think that is why we had sort of a disconnect with them.  It is like we were trying to communicate on two different wave lengths.

Since we made that decision on that evening back in 2007, we continually look for and expect God to intervene on our behalf in everything we do… Just like we did on Tuesday when we headed out to town to pick up Piper’s prescription.  I had prayed the night before that God would make a way for us to get to town without getting wet… and lo-and-behold He did!  And not only did we get the prescription but haircuts complete with encouraging words from the hairdresser! (The same thing happened during my conversation with the roofing company’s Project Manager.  Both he and the owner are active Christians!)

I like the way God works when we look toward and expect Him to intervene in our daily lives.  How about you?

Have a super-duper weekend!  And as you do, keep looking for Him and ask yourself… “Am I really expecting Him to intervene in my life today?”