God’s Mysterious Ways

If you abide in Me and My word abides in you, then you shall know the truth, and the truth shall set you free.

We’ve all heard it said that God works in mysterious ways. One of the things in life that has caused me trouble many times is not understanding what He was doing, and not waiting to see. Just grab the ball and run with it myself.

The other day, I accidentally waited for God to work things His way, although I didn’t even realize at the time that was what I was doing. The result was a wonderful feeling.

Saturday I participated in a book-signing event at the Bedford (TX) Public Library. The event sponsors gave each of us 20 minutes to read from our work, and I ended up being the last reader scheduled.

I didn’t like being the last one. I figured people would be leaving by then and no one would be there to hear me read or buy books afterward. That turned out to be a pretty good guess. My friend Charity Kountz stuck around, along with one couple who stayed after the preceding reading. This couple paid courteous attention to my reading and then got up and left without asking any questions or making any attempt to buy either of the books I read from.

As I read the last page of my reading from the second book, holding it up to see the print, which allowed others in the room to see the cover, a rather frazzled-looking lady appeared in the doorway. She stood quietly until I finished and started to put my books away, and then she stopped me.

“Oh, thank God. There were two books here today I wanted to buy, and that’s one of them.” She indicated my Christian Inspirational, Heaven Sent.

She told me she worked in the library—I’m not sure whether as an employee or a volunteer—and hadn’t had much chance to get into the room where we were displaying our books and signing the ones people bought. She’d seen mine and this other book on a quick trip through the room earlier in the day, but she didn’t have her purse with her.

When she went home for lunch, she got her purse, intending to buy both books, but when she got back to the library, she discovered her checkbook wasn’t in her purse. I guess she got off work a little before we finished and made a second trip back home to get the checkbook. By the time she got back to the library, the other authors were all gone except Charity and me, and we were about to leave.

To make the story even better, the lady running the event came to me earlier in the afternoon and told me she could get me on earlier if I didn’t mind using a different room. I’m not sure if I was afraid no one would find me in the other room, or if God did something to stop me or what, but I told her just to leave me as originally scheduled.

If I’d been scheduled earlier in the day, I probably would have left an hour sooner than I did. If I’d accepted the schedule change the lady offered me, I probably would have left an hour earlier.

The point of this story is that God knew this woman wanted my book. He also knew she wouldn’t be able to buy it until right at the library’s closing time. He arranged circumstances so that I’d be there to sell it to her when she was able to buy it.

That one sale, with library personnel standing around waiting for us to leave so they could close, made the entire day worth it. Yeah, I made a few bucks on the sale, but seeing the delight on this woman’s face was worth 100 sales. I pray that God will make the book particularly meaningful to her.