Strategic Placement  

“And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart. Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all, especially to those who are of the household of faith.” Galatians 6:9-10

One of our pastors was leaving church one evening at about 8:30 pm. As he pulled out of the parking lot, he saw three young people with suitcases walking on the sidewalk. He pulled alongside them, rolled down his window, and asked if they needed any help. These three 20-somethings from the Philippines had just arrived in San Francisco a few hours before, were dropped off at Bethel where they planned to attend school, and had wandered as far as our church, looking for a place to get something to eat.

The pastor loaded them and their gear into his vehicle and was going to get them some dinner, but in asking them where they were staying, found that the homes that showed up on their cell phone apps as places to stay were not answering their phones. By then it was 9:00 pm. He called his wife to have her prepare beds for them just in case. He drove them here and there, finally got some dinner, and eventually got calls through to the homes, where he dropped them off. They told this pastor he must be an angel.

God strategically placed him where a need was about to arise.

Today on my way in to work, I stopped for a coffee at Barnes & Noble. As I stepped up to the counter, an elderly lady tripped over a table leg and smashed her forehead onto a sharp edge of a bookshelf beside me. Blood was everywhere. I grabbed napkins to help sop it up. Her husband, helpless in a wheelchair at a table, began yelling for help. After picking up her glasses that had slid across the floor, and putting them on the table with her husband, I kneeled beside her and talked to her until help came.

I called my office to tell them I would be late, and sat with her and her husband a long time, waiting to see if I needed to give a witness statement and offering to drive her or follow her to the clinic, hospital or home.

Her husband told me I was a saint. He said I had a pure heart. He thanked me again and again—and what had I done but sit, wait, watch, and offer?

God strategically placed me where a need was about to arise.

I believe God takes us seriously when we pray, “I’m available, Lord.” I’m sure someone else would have stepped up to help if I hadn’t been there, but I was the appointed one this time. God arranged it as much for me as He did for them. Likewise, with the pastor, God arranged that as much for him as for the three wide-eyed young adults from a foreign country.

At all times, let’s be ready to BE a witness.

Lord, thank You for divine appointments. May these encounters be a testimony to a walk with You. Amen.