Prayers do get answered

When I was about 14 years old, I went to an in-patient facility to visit a friend who had attempted suicide. I ended up going back a coupe times, and during one of these visits, I met a petite Hispanic girl named “Toni”, also in for attempting suicide. She was so beautiful. In a way that only 14 year olds can do, I immediately fell in love with her. When she said she loved me too, I felt like I was walking on air. Soon after, she was released form the hospital, but I had no idea where she was released “to”, other than it was to foster care.

Of course, I was devastated. I remember telling a friend that I knew God would let me see her again, if only for one day. Of this, I felt certain. I can’t begin to tell you why I would say such a thing, because at the time I did not believe there even was a God.

Being the troubled teenager that I was, roughly a year later I found myself hitchhiking on a main street in Santa Anna California at 1 or 2 in the morning. Understand, this is a sprawling urban area, where one city borders another. I was miles form home, and do not now even remember where I was coming from, other that I was going the opposite direction, and then decided to turn around and head back. I crossed the street, and prepared to wait, as there was little traffic at that hour of the morning. As I stood there on the street corner I was thumbing from, Toni crossed the street. I couldn’t believe it was her! I asked her where she had come from; where was she staying. She said she was currently a runaway, having left that afternoon. She and I then hitchhiked back towards my home, and stayed all night at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley. We talked, we held each other, almost till sun-up. It was, until that point, the best night of my life.

The next day, she was gone. Indeed, as I had prayed, God had delivered her into my life, but only for a day. Which begs the question, does a statement of faith in God, made by an unbeliever, even qualify as a prayer? Looking back on that event, I believe it is proof that I have always been among the Elect, even though it took another 30 years or so to figure that out.

Should I continue to describe the other prayers that God has affirmatively answered? Should I describe those that He has not? I probably will over time. But for today, my point is this: I believe a statement of faith, made by one of the elect even while still an unbeliever, is more powerful than I can ever fully comprehend. I mean, the city was so huge, so many days had passed, the time of day was so early and dark, what are the odds she would “happen” by? What were the chances she would disappear the very next day?

Of course, at that time, I wished she had not disappeared as she did. But I now realize that had she stayed, my prayer would have been of no effect.

God’s peace to you if you are reading my musings.