Every now and then situations happen that make me afraid. You know that kind of fear that wraps around your heart and brings a tightening to your chest. And in those moments the only thing I know to do is to go to my Father. So one morning this week as I was praying I was just asking the Lord what He wanted to speak to my heart that morning. And I remembered a story about my mom.
When I was in middle school my dad pastored in Charleston and my mom owned a flower shop. Her shop was in a little three-bedroom house in a rougher section of town. My dad would tell her quite often to make sure she locked the door that led to her workroom when she was there. But on this morning, after she had debated on which shoes to wear, and had finally chosen the rubber soled wedges, she got to her store, went to her back workroom and forgot to lock the door. She walked into the little bathroom and began to water a fern when she heard the chime on the door announcing someone was there.
She walked to the little window and peered out only to see the front door of her shop standing wide open and no one there. This wasn’t unusual. The wind often blew it open. So, thinking nothing about it she walked through the closed, but unlocked door and headed to the front door to push it closed. As she neared the front door she turned to her left and saw a man in a black ski mask with a raised gun in his right hand pushing on a swinging door that would lead him around to the back workroom where she had just left.
He never heard her. He just kept slowly pushing against the swinging door. What he didn’t know was that she had a table wedged up against the door so he wasn’t going to get much farther. As it registered with her panicked mind that he obviously hadn’t heard her and didn’t know she was standing behind him, her eyes darted towards the open door that was right in front of her. As if her legs were lead she managed to push her body out of the door and began running up the street screaming. A few doors down a man was entering an insurance office, he turned as he heard her and she fell into his arms. He would later tell her that he saw the man run from the shop seconds after she did. Police would also later tell her that the man obviously hadn’t come to rob her, but had obviously staked out the store since he knew about the other door leading to the back room and that she was very lucky.
As I began to think about this story in my prayer time, God reminded me of how He had orchestrated the events of that morning. She had worn rubber soled shoes. (This is a lady who often goes for style over comfort.) She had forgotten to lock the door. (Even though she had been reminded time and time again.) The man had yet to feel the table up against the door he was pushing. And the door to her freedom was standing wide open in front of her. God had gone before her.
And in my fear, God was reminding me that He is going before me. And that He has a plan in the middle of the mayhem that surrounds.
No matter what man may determine for our harm, God can turn it around for our good. Because He has a plan. A plan of preservation. That morning the man that entered my mom’s shop might have had one plan as he left the front door open. But that act allowed my mom to get away safely.
