T H A N K S
by J o y c e L an d o r f
S t a n d i n g b e s i d e the sink in my friend’s kitchen, I saw above the window, carved in the wooden val ance, the words, “ In everything give thanks.” I smiled as I read those words because I had proven them to be so very true in my life. Praise to God had always meant thankfulness for wonderful things. I silently thanked the Lord for my husband’s position with a fine Christian business firm, for our dear boy Ricky and our precious little daughter Laurie. My heart skipped a beat when I also gave Him thanks for the recording contract I had just signed with a Christian com pany. Oh, yes, I thought “in every thing give thanks!” Several weeks later, however, I couldn’t see how that Scripture could possibly be in the Bible! I was crying my heart out in our bedroom. My husband and I had just come from the specialist’s office and he had con firmed our fears. Now we knew it was true. Our Laurie definitely had a hear ing loss. She might be really handi capped for life. How much, they did not know as yet. “ Oh, Lord,” I pleaded, “Not our Laurie — not the one who wants to sing all the time! No, not Laurie!” Quietly, at first, then louder, came the words to my heart: “ In everything give thanks.” “ Now, really,” I thought, “Give thanks? How can I thank You?” Tenderly the Holy Spirt directed me to a verse in Jeremiah which reads, 14
“ Call unto me and I will answer thee, and show thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.” What did He mean? Would He heal Laurie? I knew He could. What did He mean by “ great and mighty things” ? M y heart was full of ques tions, but it was strangely calmed by those words and I began to thank Him for . . . of all things . . . our little girl’s hearing loss. Laurie was fortunate to be able to wear a small transistor-type hearing aid and she began her first year at school. The instrument had cost three hundred dollars but we felt it was a small price to pay if it would pick up the low tones which otherwise she could not hear. One day Laurie came home from school and exclaimed breathlessly, “Has the principal called yet?” I an swered in a matter-of-fact tone, “No, he hasn’t.” Then the words froze in my throat as I realized what she had said. “ The principal? Why would he call me?” I asked. I looked at Laurie and she answered very quietly, “ I lost my hearing aid on the playground today.” I thought desperately of the final payment we had just sent in. Several hours later, along with the children of third, fourth and fifth grades, the custodian, the principal and several other teachers, we were helping to rake the whole playground. But it was of no avail . . . the aid was gone! It had vanished completely. Early the next morning, the princi
pal called to say that the custodian had found the aid, intact and un harmed on the playground! I hur riedly sent him a reward and a letter of thanks. As I wrote, I wondered if he knew Christ. I had no way of knowing, but I asked God to bless him. I did not hear from him, but I couldn’t seem to forget him. A few weeks later, Laurie’s fine Christian teacher called me into school for a regular parent-and-teacher con ference and she told me she wanted me to hear a story from a cleaning woman there at the school. Soon the lady was ushered in and introduced to me and then she related the follow ing: Several weeks before, as she came to work in the morning she was sur prised to see all the children on the playground and she had asked her boss, the custodian, what on earth was happening. He told her they were looking for a little girl’s hearing aid. She left the play area and began washing some blackboards when she heard what she believed to be the voice of the Lord saying in her heart, “You have wanted to tell the cus todian about Me for a long time. Now here is your chance.” “ But how?” was her response. Later that night, at pray er meeting, she asked her whole church to pray that her boss would find the hearing aid so that she could tell the custodian that the Lord had made it possible and thus she would be able to witness for Him. THE KING'S BUSINESS
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