SOMETHING DIFFERENT

I was looking forward to a quiet time, counting down (or rather up) to 66 years of life on planet earth. But a couple of days before the date,  I had to get up very early in the morning to drive a foreign Pastor who had been unexpectedly "stuck" over 4 days in KL to the airport to catch a 7 am flight out. I had received an urgent  call  to help him out,  as there was an unexpected "hiccup" in his missions trip, which necessitated him to come to KL to return to his home country. The problem was compounded as he is blind. No one I approached was willing or able to help. I had resigned myself to putting him up in the small back-room in my house though I had serious misgivings about how I was to manage the whole situation. 

But I needn't have worried. For the minute I said "Yes, Lord" to the call placed upon me, God in His grace provided everything. As things turned out, a brother was travelling together with Pastor and they had already checked themselves into a hotel for the duration. The only hitch was this brother was leaving a day earlier to continue his own missions assignment. Which meant the blind Pastor would be alone for 1 day. So really, all I had to do wasn't much. I only took them for Sunday church service, spent some time over lunch together and drove them back to their hotel. Even on the last day, Pastor managed remarkably well on his own. I was left with only 1 task - get him to the airport for the flight back to his home country. 

Of course driving him there wasn't a problem. But I was wondering how to manage the logistics of leaving him alone at the departure gate with all his luggage, whilst I had to go round to park the car before helping him to check in. And I was concerned because I certainly couldn't get him through immigration. Again I needn't have worried. He was so much more experienced than I, so "cool" about everything. He was the one advising me, to just ask for special disability assistance at the check-in counter. Indeed, all things turned out well.

 I managed to park the car, met him where I had left him at the entrance and yes, indeed the airline had special assistance available that would see him through all the way to boarding. All he had to do was sit and wait 1 hour for the airline staff to help. So I got him seated, bought him some light breakfast, wished him well, and said goodbye. But as I walked the rather long way back to the parking lot, my heart was very uneasy. As I reached the car, I heard the voice of rebuke , "Go back, Finish your job properly." I knew whose voice it was. And I have learnt when God talks to me, I better just obey. So it was, I turned around and headed back all the way to sit with the Pastor for 1 hour, before finally handing him over to the airline staff at the appointed time . Only  then I felt the release in my heart - my job was finally finished. 4 hours later, he video-called me from a car;  his family had picked him up safely. 

As I look back on this episode, I knew God was setting me up for something different. There were so many other people who could have been called . Indeed I was disappointed at some of the responses I got about assisting a foreign stranger.  Plus I had my own doubts about my ability to help. But as I sat in church that Sunday, listening to the Pastor's  amazing testimony, I knew why I was called. Here he is..a totally blind man...can be Pastor of an independent church, can plant  14 other churches, can go on  evangelistic missions to 22 countries, whose wife is blind like him, yet all their 4 children are normal. God was showing me, Hey, see what I can do when someone says, "Yes, Lord, I am all Yours." This blind man wasn't a "big name", he didn't have any "mega church" backing. But his life spoke volumes of the God he served so faithfully. No excuses, no fear. Indeed lots of things in life can go wrong, even when we are faithful, as in this case.  But God will always work them out right. We just have to finish the portion given to us, even if it's just a small thing. Not leave it half-done or walk away before its time. No matter how inconvenient.   

So as I contemplated entering  the 66th year of my life, I see God's perfecting His work in me.  In my email was a message from a devotional website, greeting me with a special word for my specialday...from  

Ephesians 2:10 We are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. The message was entitled "The Masterpiece Within."  How appropriate and how uplifting it is to know I am created by the Mighty Hand of a divine Artist who wills me to be His masterpiece to be seen, a living poem to be read by all

I spent my birthday pottering about in the garden in the morning. Finally I could get rid of the decaying mulberry tree -   it had rotted enough for me to just pull it up, trunk,  roots  and all. I had started with chopping off its diseased branches many many  months ago.    For good measure, I also cut off all the badly-infested spinach leaves in my back garden. I was reminded of all the poisonous  rubbish we all have , some buried so deep and so long inside us, that we have ceased to be even aware of them.  I don't want my garden of life to be filled with rotten and rotting stuff.                                                            

Happily, the first birthday  greeting in my watsapp came from a "old" fren...she had sent a really cute GIF of a cat holding forth a rose. I was so amused, for the cat looked so much like my own fat cat  Maffin. I take it as a sign that the year/s ahead will be a beautiful blooming of my life, as the planting of the Lord Himself. 

For surely, "It is God who works in you (me)  to will and to act in order to fulfill His good purpose” (Philippians 2:13) ...for my future. Interestingly 66 broken down 6+6 =12  which is one of the foundational numbers of Scripture. It symbolizes  God's power and authority,  completeness and perfection. I can't ask for anything more than that for my 66th birthday.....