“In My Father’s house are many mansions;
if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again; that where I am,
there you may be also” (John 14:2-3)
A short time ago, we were privileged to be a small part of what
I think of as the rescue of two little children. Vincent is three, and his
sister, Molina, is one and one-half. I say we were “privileged” because there
were actually two key persons involved. The children’s great-grandmother, our
dear friend, heard of the children’s situation and chose to rescue them. And of
course, God Himself was also involved. The great grandmother is
determined to help them and so is their heavenly Father. Our part was
incidental to theirs, for they would have saved the children whether we
participated or not.
We drove from Long Beach to Hemet, a trip that took a few hours
in rush traffic. We found the motel where the children and their mother were
staying, but had difficulty finding the exact room. When we did, the boy had no
shoes; they had just a few clean articles of clothing and a few old broken toys.
The boy was using the microwave to heat up a jar of Spaghetti-O’s for himself
and his sister. The mother was asleep on the bed.
The mother woke up and she still felt the same as she did when
she phoned the great-grandmother, saying, “Come and
pick-up the children… I’m afraid I will hurt them.” We spent about an
hour in the room and then it was time to go shopping. We shopped for shoes,
underwear, diapers and car seats. The Lord did it all, for it had been years
since we had looked for such things, and He did it all through a brave,
unselfish great-grandmother. She did not have to help them. We’ve known others
in difficulty who weren’t helped. We praise God that this lady, Diane, cared
enough to act for these little ones.
A day later, we learned about the condition of our friend,
Barbara Davenport. We met this lady seven years ago, just after we first started
visiting patients and out-patients at the spinal cord injury wing of the local
Veterans Administration hospital. Barbara was a constant visitor there,
logging-in more than 11,500 hours as a volunteer. She had been a quadriplegic herself for
half of her adult life, and for the past 24-or so years, she lived in a little
house behind a house in West Long Beach, California, in the USA.
Recently the property was sold and the new owners wanted her and
her caregiver to move. It turned out that the county-sponsored program that had
helped pay her rent for more than two decades was now “out-moded.” Would she be
approved by the county or city for more assistance? Would she be approved in
time? My wife worked many hours with various agencies to get her approved for a
two bedroom unit.
Finally she was approved, but there seemed to be no place for
her to live. One unit was very nice she said, but somebody else got it first.
Through all this, Barbara kept telling us to not worry. “God
has a place for me,” she said, “He has wonderful
plans for me.” And then we got the news: she had a stroke and was
hospitalized in an intensive care unit.
When we visited her, she couldn’t move, but that wasn’t a
surprise for that had been the case every since her injury, decades before. She
seemed lucid, smiling a lot as she told us that all was well. A couple of days
later, we received another call: Barbara had gone to be with the Lord. She had
been right: “God has a place” for her, a very
special place. She is there right now and she is walking, leaping and praising
God.
Events on earth reflect actions that are occurring on a scale
larger than we can imagine and God is ultimately the Victor in everything. The
children, Vincent and Molina, are safe in a new home because God reached through
their great-grandmother, Diane, and rescued them from danger. Barbara, who was a
prisoner in her own paralyzed body for decades, was rescued in a different way,
but it is a rescue indeed. Jesus has prepared one of those “mansions” for her and she is there with Him in glory
right now.
The children’s mother started calling and demanding her children
back. She never asked to speak to them; she simply insisted that she have them.
But the decision isn’t ours or hers. From a human perspective, the
great-grandmother has a say in the matter and from a much larger perspective,
it’s God who has a place for those children. He intends to keep them safe, not
only now, but also for the rest of their lives and for all eternity.
Barbara Davenport was a wonderful painter, and we are told by
the family that she was a very good acrylic painter even before her injury in
1976. After it happened, this full-of-life young woman was despondent, but as it
so often happens, she found the Lord in a new and more wonderful way, entering a
life that became the Lord’s blessing.
It was the Lord who got her into the Rancho Los Amigos
Rehabilitation Center, where she learned to paint again. They taught her to
paint with the only part of her body that could do it – the handle of the brush
was in her teeth, and she worked for months on each one of some of the most
beautiful paintings we have ever seen. One year she blessed us by letting me buy
a print of her rendition of an inner courtyard of the San Juan Capistrano
Mission. It was to be my wife, Genevieve’s birthday present that year, and
Barbara included a lovely frame with it. It hangs over my wife’s desk in an
honored place. Another painting was of an unpaved roadway through tall grass. I
had often wondered where the road went as it wound its way into the distance. Her
sister told us that Barbara had said it ended up “in
heaven,” just after disappearing out-of-sight in the picture.
Jesus Christ is painting a beautiful picture through your life
and mine. The future looks difficult for three year-old Vincent and his little
sister, Molina, just as things looked very bad for Barbara Davenport in 1976. If
it were 1976 once more, we would not choose the future that God picked for
Barbara, either for her or anyone else. But the Lord has a magnificent plan and
purpose for all of those who trust in Him. He loves us. He loves – you!
Whatever happens in life, He has “a place for”
those who receive Him and He will “come again,” taking
us into the joy of the Lord – forever.
Father, thank You that you have a purpose for us, no matter
how things might seem right now. We trust in You, Lord, that you have a “place” – for us. Comfort Barbara’s many loved ones and
protect those children. We trust in You. In Jesus Name. Amen.
