Another Monday rolled around.
He got into the car to drive to work. I saw him sit for a moment in his car looking at the sky. The dark, gloomy clouds moving slowly seemed to reflect the turmoil raging in his heart. For a split second, a look of anguish streaked across his face. That raw pain hurt my heart.
He must have realized that I was watching him from the window. He looked my way and plastered on a smile. As I waved goodbye, I prayed that today would be a better day.
It felt like ‘better’ was not a word in our vocabulary lately.
Work was becoming a challenge. Well, he loved the work. He can sit for hours absorbed in pages of letters and numbers that made no sense to me. Trouble shooting computers is an adventure to him, a mind boggling task for me.
But he hated the office dramas. The never ending politics were starting to weigh him down. This job that seemed to have been from God in a time when no other job opportunities were coming his way was starting to feel like a recurring nightmare.
Was this really God’s plan? Or did we mistake desperation for God’s guiding hands?
That day did not seem any different. We went through the mundane. As the evening approached, I grew increasingly tensed wondering if any other office drama was going to add to the debilitating mental stress.
I was caught off guard when he arrived home with an excitement that I had not seen in a long time.
When ‘better’ arrived
“Guess what happened?” he asked.
“What?” I said. Not very smart, I know, and not exactly guessing.
“Remember my favourite copy of the Bible that I keep on the back seat?” His excitement tingled with a sense of awe.
“As I was leaving work today, the security guard at the entrance stopped my car. I am not sure how she noticed the Bible among all the other things in the back seat. She pointed to it and asked whether it was a Bible.”
By then, I was curious about where this conversation was going. I could not help but get caught up with the exhilaration in his emotions.
“What happened then?” I quickly asked, eager to find out.
“When I told her yes, she asked me if she could have it! For a split second I hesitated because it was my favourite copy and I thought I could take another one for her tomorrow. But I felt the urge to grab my Bible and give it to her.”
His voice dropped to a hush tone.
“She clung on to that Bible and thanked me profusely. She said she’s been wanting a Bible for some time now.”
The moment felt almost sacred as we sat quietly reflecting on what had happened.
His simple statement broke the silence.
“That was a God moment.”
It sure was.
In moments when we are miserable, tired and stressed out, God knows. When we go through the mundane routines, God sees us. When we need Him to appear, He fulfils our expectations.
He must have smiled thinking, “Ahh.. what a perfect arrangement this is. It will put the Gospel in one pair of hands and encouragement in the heart of the other.”
Did all the stress disappear overnight? It did not. But for that day, our cups were filled. That overflowing cups carried us through the next few days, weeks and months. God eventually shut that door and he found a job elsewhere.
Many Mondays have rolled around since then. Every now and then, we think about what happened. We pray that the lady has had more life changing encounters with Jesus.
He never saw her again. However, he was thankful that he obeyed the urging of the Holy Spirit to hand over his favourite copy of the Bible when he had that one chance. We will most likely never see it again.
But that lady? My husband and I hope to see her in heaven someday. After all, these God moments always carve out the path to Him.