Miracles happen every day, and miracles take many different forms. I see this story as a miracle of Love, a miracle of God.
I walked up to one of the benches and asked the man if he wanted something to eat. When he looked up, I recognized him as a man we had met just the week before. He had been living at a halfway house and working, and he had left that housing program apparently to be in a relationship.
The woman we had seen with him before was no longer there, and he was left alone to sleep in the park.
He looked lost and dejected, his sadness surrounding him.
“Oh, it’s you,” I said. “Are you okay?”
He shook his head as if he didn’t have an answer. He felt broken. “I have to do something,” he said. “I can’t stay out here like this.”
“I hear you,” I said. “I know.” Knowing he needed an answer, and knowing that he wasn’t truly left alone, abandoned or without hope, I told him, “I’m going to stand right here and pray with you until God gives you an answer. He knows you. He has a plan for you.”
I know it’s true that God knows every person individually. And I know it’s true that God always has a plan for us, if we only ask to follow it. Not as easy to do in everyday life as it may sound, but I know it’s the work we’re meant to do.
We prayed for a short time, maybe 10 minutes or so, and he said he felt better. I always ask the Lord for peace for people, and in that peace, people can more clearly hear His voice for them.
“I have an aunt in Knoxville,” he said.
I knew immediately that she was a good woman and that she loved him.
“She’s a really good woman. She really loves me,” he answered, already tuning in in prayer to God’s plan for him.
W. had spent more than two decades in prison and was now on the cusp of regaining his life. He knew he wasn’t going to get in trouble again even though people were worrying about him. He had talked to his aunt and knew, through her, that his elderly mother in another state was in poor health.
”Talk to your aunt,” I urged. “She’s a good woman, and she loves you. God has a plan for you, and this might be part of His plan for you.”
W. nodded and agreed that he would talk to her again and that he might even go to Knoxville.
We saw W. again two nights later. He had talked to his aunt again, and he looked and felt better. He was possibly going to do some day work because he’s a worker at heart and needed some money, and he could feel some sort of plan forming for him.
We gave him some food and prayed with him again.
He got our phone number and said he would call to let us know what happened with him.
When we drove by the park later that night, he was still sitting up. We can often feel the presence of prayer staying with people after we have left them.
A few weeks went by, and I thought to myself, “Hey. We haven’t seen W., and he said he’d let us know what happened to him.”
The next night, when we were taking out food, he called and left a voicemail. He called again the next day to talk in person.
W. said he had stayed up all night praying that night, and at dawn, he got up and walked to the bus station to buy a bus ticket. He was now back at home, decades later, taking care of his mother.
He was going to church with his uncle. And he had a job working at a factory.
He thanked us and said that he couldn’t have made it back home without us checking on him and praying with him.
“You know, it’s amazing how many people will help you when you’re doing good,” he said as his message to us.
I count this joyful homecoming as a straight-out miracle from God, one that was possibly already within reach, but wasn’t realized until prayer made it real.
In Your Name, Jesus. Amen.
~ Julie