Some time ago, I went into the post office to mail a card to my nephew in Ventura, California. Noticing, the address, the smiling postal worker whom I’d never seen before, said, “That’s where I’m from!”
Pleasant conversation followed. Although we didn’t talk at all about spiritual things, I came away from that encounter thinking, I’m sure that man is a Christian.
Some time later, Donn and I went to an ecumenical prayer gathering at a local church. We sat near the back, but on the other side of the auditorium, near the front, I caught a glimpse of that postal worker. “There’s Maurice from the Post Office,” I whispered to Donn. “I knew he was a Christian.”
When the service was over, we threaded our way through the crowd, and I introduced Donn to Maurice. Then I said, “I was sure from the first time I met you that you were a Christian!”
Maurice smiled and told us he’d moved to our town to help start a church. I was so encouraged to know there was a light for Jesus in our post office!
Months went by where we saw Maurice occasionally either at the post office or around town. Then weeks passed where other duties must have kept him from working at the window, or I simply didn’t have business there when he was on duty.
One morning, a few weeks after Robb passed away, I was driving to the post office when the radio station I was listening to played “Rattle” by Elevation Worship. I listened to the positive, faith-filled lyrics such as:
Since when has impossible ever stopped you?
I believe there’s another miracle here in this room.
My God is able to save and deliver and heal and restore anything that He wants to… And many more…
Tears rolled down my cheeks. “It’s too late, Lord,” I wept. “He’s gone.” I pulled up to the curb at the post office and wiped away my tears before going inside.
Maurice was at the window, and he greeted me warmly, asking how I was. I don’t make a habit of telling everyone who asks me how I am about the death of our son, but since there was no one behind me in line, I told Maurice. “We’ve been going through a rough patch. Our son passed away on July 7.”
He was immediately sympathetic. “Oh no! What happened?”
I gave him a brief account of Robb’s illness. Then he said, “I’ve been teaching from the Gospel of John on Wednesday nights, most recently on John 11.”
Immediately, I recognized the reference because the Holy Spirit had spoken to me repeatedly from John 11 leading up to and after Robb’s death–the account of the death of Lazarus. I had used this passage for a meditation for our Small Group and for a blog. I listened as Maurice shared some thoughts while the Holy Spirit provided a time with no other customers in the post office lobby.
I interjected, “Even though Mary and Martha had very different temperaments, both of them greeted Jesus with the very same words, If you had been here, my brother would not have died. That’s how I’ve felt at times during the past weeks. Part of me knows that God was there when our son died, but another part of me feels like if He had been there, our son wouldn’t have died.”
Without one word of reproof, Maurice said, “And God is big enough to handle all the feelings we have in our time of grief.”
When I left the post office a few minutes later, our son was still gone, but the Holy Spirit whispered, “It isn’t too late for you. I have a miracle for you, and the miracle is that you’re going to get through this—you’re going to walk through the valley of the shadow of death because I am with you. I am going to send you help in good time for every need [appropriate help and well-timed help, coming just when you need it] (Hebrews 4:16 AMPC), just as I did today—even in the post office!”
Thank you, Father, that you’re able to provide exactly what we need in the most unexpected places. Even though your help doesn’t always come in the way or the time we might choose, help us keep our eyes fixed on you. Amen.