Unexpected Fruit
Posted by Rebecca Tue, 06 Mar 2007 22:30:00 GMT
About three years ago, when I was transitioning from my first admin job to my second admin job (I’m now on my fourth), I met a middle-aged man who left a strong impression on me.
We were moving offices around at the end of the summer and we had hired a temp to come help with moving furniture and boxes, and prepping rooms for paint. The temp that came over was a tall, super nice, middle-aged man.
He was very nice, very friendly, and very intelligent.
I remember him saying that he had a young daughter and he was going through a divorce and had gotten laid off from an electrical engineering job and was struggling to make ends meet.
He became a temp at UT so he’d have a possible chance of getting some kind of job that would enable him to pay child support and such. His story moved me because here was a guy with a brain who wasn’t lazy and life still dealt him a bad hand and he was doing everything he could to stay in the game.
I made it a point to pray for him and as often as I thought of him I prayed that God would open a door for him. After we finished moving the offices, I didn’t see him again. I wondered over the last three years what became of him, but chose to trust that God was taking care of him.
Yup. He’s in my office right now, finishing up his homework. About three years ago, he saw a flier for the graduate program here and talked to the graduate advisor about it. They encouraged him to apply and he was a provisional admit. He will graduate this semester with a Master’s degree and has been doing interviews with engineering firms all over town and will likely land something great with an excellent salary, as most of our graduates do.
I remember recently someone stated that it’s hard to remember to pray for people when you’re likely to never see the fruit. I said at the time that I believe you have to trust that God honors your prayers. I can pray all day long for people in Darfur and I may never ever see the fruit of my prayers but I know that God is listening and I know that he takes my requests to heart.
When I prayed for this man I didn’t have any hope of ever seeing him again or finding out what became of him. But for some reason, God decided to let me see the fruit of that prayer. Of all the prayers I’ve prayed, he let me get to see the fruit of that one. I now know that what I’ve believed for so long is true. God listens. Prayers bear fruit.
You never know when you’ll get to see it.
