Andrew's experience with the kids

Andrew isn't much of a journal writer, but he documented this experience that happened on Saturday and I thought I'd share it with you.

Feb 24, 2008

The most amazing thing happened on the way to theMuseum yesterday. With Vanessa out of town, I packedthe kids up and headed down to the mall intent onvisiting the Museum of Natural History. It was around3 pm when we left here and I assumed that with alittle patience and a little luck we would find aparking space along the mall. I mean, who else willwant to be there on a cold, rainy, February Saturday? Well, apparently, an awful lot of people. Aftermaking a full round up and down the mall roads, it wasbecame evident that there were tons of people justlike me crawling along almost bumper to bumper looking for the brake lights to light up indicating adeparting vehicle. Looking at the clock and the amount of competition, I started to feel like it was areal possibility that we could spend more than an hourcircling without ever getting a break. Also, if we didn’t find parking in the next 30 minutes or so, it would be a very short visit to the museum before it closed.

I enlisted the kids help finding a space to park, partly to keep them busy, and partly because with all the competition, I needed all the help I could get,even if that help was yelling out whenever they saw an open spot in front of a fire hydrant, or garage entrance, or bus unloading zone.

The thought occurred to me that we could say a prayer together and ask for the Lord’s help. At first, I dismissed it, thinking that it was too risky. What if we didn’t find a spot? I didn’t want to damage their simplistic view of faith and prayer. After a moment,I reconsidered and proposed the idea to the kids. They all liked the idea. I called on Faith since Grant has been the previous prayer in situations like this. Faith was fine with saying the prayer, but struggled with the notion that I was going to drive and participate in the prayer at the same time. Shesaid a short, simple prayer asking for help that most assuredly punched through the car roof and cloudcover, arriving at the pearly gates stamped HighPriority.

A different mood came over me immediately. All of a sudden, I was pleased to stop and allow pedestrians tocross in front of me. Why rush, when the Lord istaking care of the situation? Less than a minute later, when we came to a stoplight,Clarky wondered loudly why we had not found a parkingspace yet if we said a prayer. It was some comic relief and provided a chance to explain that ourprayers must oft times be accompanied by patience and faith.

The light turned green and we proceeded into the nextblock and stopped again at an intersection. As we were waiting and surveying the cross street for anybody leaving, I noticed out of my peripheral vision a man and his two kids step up to the crosswalk. They were waiting for the “walk” signal to proceed across the street in the same direction as we were heading. Our eyes met somehow and he mouthed the word to me,“Parking?”. Surprised, I nodded vigorously back to him in affirmation. He pointed across the street suggesting to me that he was parked just up ahead. With no cars coming, he crossed just ahead of the green light and had already crossed the street when we started through the intersection. He pushed his doorlock button on his key ring, which made his vehicle light up just a few spots ahead. I simple could not believe it.

What are the chances of a person who clearly knows how “in demand” parking is offering to someone else in this way? And what arethe chances that it would be us sitting there at that light having just prayed for divine intervention? It was so unmistakably an answer to little Faith’sprayer. Like He often does, the Lord helped us through another person. I chided myself afterwards for not trying to somehow tell the man that he had just been party to a miracle. It probably would have touched him. I sinned immediately after having received a blessing. I hate it when I do that.

If the Lord cares enough to orchestrate miracles of open parking spaces, perhaps he also cares enough to answer other prayers on other matters – like healing relationships, changing hearts, enabling forgiveness,and so on. It was a great day.