CLACK

It was Monday.  Monday is the day I drop by the retirement home where my elderly friend Betty lives, to spend time playing games and chatting with her.  I know that Betty looks forward to these visits, so I try not to miss 'our' day.

That particular Monday, I also planned to visit my friend Sandy who had just undergone a hysterectomy.  Sandy was not a happy camper.  She was in great discomfort and when I had called her, she kept repeating, "I want to die!  I want to die!"

My relationship with Sandy was based, mostly, on teasing.  Sandy teased me, and I reciprocated in kind.  Divorced for many years, she enjoyed calling me to say that my husband was coming to her house for dinner. She would ask me to remind him to bring the wine.  She'd then call the following day, to tell me how much he had enjoyed the food and the company (He was, of course, at home all that night.).  I would reciprocate and yell at her, calling her nasty names and telling her to keep her hands off of my husband. This had gone on for years.  Sandy and I and my husband got a kick out of it.  But now, Sandy was in discomfort and needed a visit.  I felt in my spirit that God was telling me that I was 'supposed' to go to the hospital that day.  

I got ready to leave and looked in my purse for my keys.  They weren't there! They weren't in either jacket pocket...they weren't on the stairs.  I searched high and low...but to no avail.  No keys!  Certain that my husband had once again taken them by mistake, I phoned his workplace.

"Do you have my keys?"
"No."
"Are you sure?"
"Yes."
"I've looked everywhere!  Where can they be?"
"Have you checked your car?"

I hadn't looked there, so out I went to check.  "Oh, no!"  They were in the car on the passenger seat.  My car has a particularly annoying idiosyncrasy...the doors lock automatically whether you want them to or not!  If you get out of the car for a few seconds and want to get back in, you'd find the doors locked. When you're inside the car, they lock a few seconds after you close the door.  It's aggravating, but just one of those things I've had to get used to.  It ALWAYS happens.  It NEVER fails!  When I saw the keys on the seat, I knew I wouldn't be able to visit my friends that day.  Betty would be so disappointed.  "Lord, I was sure I felt you telling me to go visit Sandy today.  I don't understand this."  I turned to go back into the house to call the two women, but something caught my eye.  I turned to look at the door.  It was NOT locked! Impossible, but true!!  In the seven years that I'd had the car, this had never happened!  I opened the door quickly and grabbed the keys.  "Thank you, Lord," I whispered gratefully.  

I had a wonderful visit with Betty and after lunch, drove to the hospital expecting that something great was about to happen.

Sandy started whining the moment I walked into the hospital room.  The refrain began again...."I want to die.  I want to die."  Always able to humour her in the past, I said lightheartedly, "Well, that's okay, you can die...but have you said the Sinner's Prayer?"
"What's that?"
"Well, do you believe Jesus is the Son of God?"
"Yes."
"Do you believe that He died for your sins?"
"Yes."
"Do you believe He rose again on the third day?"
"Yes."
"Okay, let's say the prayer and then you can die," I joked.

I prayed and Sandy repeated the words, dedicating her life to God in Jesus' name.

Immediately after we'd finished the prayer, a nurse came into the room.  The name on her name tag was GRACE.  She checked Sandy's I.V. and left the room. "That was very cool.  You just said the prayer and in comes GRACE. We laughed at that.

Seconds later, in walked an orderly, also with a name tag.  His read Placido. "That's an unusual name," I said.  "It means peace, doesn't it?"

"Yes," answered Placido.  "My family and friends call me J.C. but I can't live up to that name!"

I now knew why God had prompted me to visit my friend.  After Placido had left the room, I looked at Sandy in amazement. "Isn't that incredible?  You said the prayer and immediately after, in came GRACE, PEACE and J.C.!!!" 



*NOTE
I thought that perhaps the car doors hadn't locked because if the keys were inside, some mechanism inside them and the car, prevented them from locking (so they wouldn't get locked inside the car?).  So, when my husband returned that night, I took his key and my keys and went out to my car.  I placed my keys on the car seat and waited several seconds...expecting that the doors wouldn't lock, but....CLACK (as my husband would say)....they did!!!  Since that day, as Jean-Pierre and some of my friends can attest, the annoying doors continue to lock!!!

*NOTE NUMBER TWO
This is a story that some of you might have seen or heard.  I wanted to write it for 'posterity' and to give great thanks to HIM!