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| My mother was a devout Christian and claimed to have a personal relationship with God. I can’t claim that for myself. I believe in the concept of God but not on a personal level. According to my mother, God answered her prayers and one example she would give me is that if she lost something such as her purse when she would pray to God she would find it. The skeptic in me would ask her why God would help find her purse but not answer a mother’s prayer in Africa for her starving child? That’s why I’m not such a good prayer. I feel guilty asking God for help with my middle class mundane problems when there is so much suffering in the world. Even when my son was an infant and had meningitis I felt uncomfortable asking for intervention. My prayer was “Thy will be done” and I put my son in God’s hands. That’s not to say I never begged God for anything. When in terrible pain from a kidney stone, gallbladder attack or childbirth I’ve been known to cry out for help. I have had small miracles in my life from time to time. I have one to share with you now. I didn’t pray for this and I’m not claiming that God intervened. I’ll let you judge that for yourself. Dave and I were on one of our annual camping trips in Northern Michigan. Dave’s parents were watching the kids at our house as they would for a long weekend each summer so we could vacation alone. That year we were camping at Traverse City State Park in our pop-up camper. Traverse City State Park is one of my favorite parks not for it’s rustic beauty, even though it is on the busiest street in town, there is a bridge over the highway to the beach and a great biking trail in the back. We use it more like a cheap hotel and spend our days on trips to other favorite areas like the Sleeping Bear Sand Dunes, Old Mission Peninsula and the entire Leelanau County with it’s rolling hills great beaches and wineries. This day we were going an hour away to Charlevoix. Charlevoix is a beautiful little costal town wedged between Lake Michigan and Lake Charlevoix. Downtown is between both lakes with a couple of blocks of upscale gift shops for tourists. The homes near the town and beach are summer homes to the rich which are much more luxurious than anything Dave and I could dream of owning as a primary residence. This year we were in town treating ourselves to a noon time dinner cruise on a paddleboat in Lake Charlevoix. When we arrived at the ticket counter I realized I left my sunglasses in the camper back in Traverse City. It was a very sunny day and quite a glare was coming off the lake. I would not be able to enjoy the cruise as much without my sunglasses. We had time to shop and buy a pair, but as usual money was tight for us and the Dutch girl in me couldn’t justify another pair unless I could find some cheap ones. We had one hour to shop so I told Dave I had to find a pair of sunglasses for two dollars. Charlevoix does not have a dollar store and Dave thought it was unlikely I would find two-dollar sunglasses in any of the fancy stores in town. It was nearing the end of summer so I told him we may find some on clearance and we had an hour to kill anyway. We went in each store in the two blocks of downtown and the cheapest sunglasses I could find were ten dollars. I couldn’t spend that much when I had perfectly good sunglasses in Traverse City. There was a grocery store across the street to try, but again no luck. Then we saw a Seven-Eleven store. I was discouraged, tired and ready to give up. I’ve been in Seven-Eleven’s before and didn’t think that was a place that would have sunglasses. Dave encouraged me to go anyway since we were right by it. We entered the store, had a quick look around and didn’t see any sunglasses. Just as I had my hand on the door to leave I heard the clerk say, “Do you want some sunglasses?” I turned around and saw him talking to a customer buying some cigarettes. I asked the clerk, “Do you have sunglasses?” “Yes”, he replied. I asked how much they were. The clerk said they were free. They are part of a cigarette promotion. I asked if I needed to buy cigarettes in order to get the sunglasses. The clerk then told me that I didn’t have to buy any cigarettes, that I could just have the sunglasses. Well I got my sunglasses and they didn’t cost even the two dollars I was willing to pay. We had a great dinner and boat ride. I still had a hard time believing that God or one of his angles would get me those sunglasses but I can’t deny that whatever happened was some sort of small miracle. Does God have some odd sense of humor and just likes to mess with me from time to time, kind of like a tap on the shoulder just to say here I am? I still wondered about that kid in Africa. Why wasn’t God doing miracles for him? Then it occurred to me, maybe that was something God wants me to take care of for him. I knew I couldn't save the whole world but I could help origanizations that try or sponser one child myself. That's just what I did. |
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