May 13, 2001
CYBERCOLUMN:
Joy and sorrow, he's always there
___By Donna Van Cleve
___Julie handed her eyeglasses to her cousin Mary to hold during the football game while Julie did her cheerleading. Jumps, cartwheels and flips weren't conducive to wearing glasses. Mary put them in her purse without giving them a second thought.
___At the church's fifth-quarter fellowship following the game, Julie asked Mary for her glasses. Mary opened her purse, but the glasses weren't there.
___"They must've fallen out when I took some money out for the concession stand," Mary said. "I am so sorry, Julie."
___Julie was crushed. She didn't have the money to buy new glasses. She didn't want to face her parents about it, either.
___I told them the glasses had to be around the stands somewhere and suggested that we get some flashlights and go look for them. We drafted several other youth to help us, and we drove out to the darkened stadium.
DONNA VAN CLEVE
___We followed Mary and scoured the ground as she retraced all of her steps from where she sat, to where she visited friends under the stands, to the concession stand and everywhere in-between. No glasses. So we all fanned out and began looking everywhere on the home side of the stadium. Still no glasses.
___After 20 minutes or so, I called everyone to the front of the stands.
___"I've been praying about this," I began, and most of them chimed in, "Me, too."
___"Well, the glasses are either still here, or someone found them and will turn them in," I said. "We'll spend five more minutes looking. If they're here, let's ask God to show us where they are. If we don't find them, I'm sure someone picked them up already."
___So we huddled in a prayer group and asked God to help us find Julie's glasses. The group dispersed and went several directions. Thirty seconds hadn't passed before Mary shouted, "I found them!"
___The glasses were found in a place under the stands where we all had looked several times. We all huddled again, jumping up and down screaming, "Thank you, Lord!"
___Julie stopped jumping and said, "Why are we acting so surprised that God answered our prayer?"
___We all laughed about it but still had no doubts that God was just waiting for us to ask his help before he revealed those glasses to us. And I believe it was no accident that God allowed Mary to be the one to find the glasses—what a sweet balm.
___Finding the eyeglasses wasn't an earth-shattering event, but it was a wonderful faith-building experience for those young people and me. God cares about even the smallest details of our lives and is so loving and gracious to let us know he's there for us in every part of our lives—even the day some 18 months later, when Mary's stepfather shot and killed her mother in front of the grocery store downtown.
___Only two nights before, our church had recognized the graduating seniors by having memorabilia tables set up for each one. Part of the program was for one of the parents to stand before the group and share some sentimental memories about their child. I blubbered through a letter I'd written to my graduating son, and afterwards my daughter whispered to me that Mary's mother was too shy about speaking in front of everyone.
___"Could you say something for Mary?" she asked me.
___So I said a few words about Mary, whom I had come to love during the many youth trips and activities for which I had the joy and privilege to be a sponsor during the previous six years. We had taken a picture of Mary's mom some time during the evening. I had forgotten about it until we had the pictures developed, and then I realized it had been the last photograph taken of Mary's mother before she died.
___ I don't know why that tragedy happened five years ago. It felt like a truck slammed into us when we heard the news. And for awhile, all we could do for Mary and her older brother and younger sister was to hold on and cry with them. God used kinfolks, friends, the church and the whole community to help them through that difficult time.
___"I will never leave you nor forsake you" (Hebrews 13:5).
___God is there for us in every part of our lives—in our joys as well as in unfathomable circumstances such as these. He is able to give us a peace that passes all understanding, which means that even in the worst of times and situations our souls can experience peace—his peace, his strength, his love, his grace and his hand—our place of refuge.
___ "No one can snatch you out of my hand" (John 10:28).
___ Donna Van Cleve is director of the public library in Cotulla, a writer, wife, mother and member of First Baptist Church in Cotulla, where she is pianist.
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