A Perfect Mistake
Grandpa Nybakken loved life -- especially when he
could play a trick on
somebody. At those times, his large Norwegian frame
shook with
laughter while he feigned innocent surprise,
exclaiming, "Oh,
forevermore!"
But on a cold Saturday in downtown
Chicago, Grandpa
felt that God played a trick on him, and Grandpa
wasn't laughing.
Mother's father worked as a carpenter. On this
particular day, he was
building some crates for the clothes his church was
sending to an
orphanage in China. On his way home, he reached into
his shirt pocket
to find his glasses, but they were gone. He
remembered putting them
there that morning, so he drove back to the church.
His search proved
fruitless.
When he mentally replayed his earlier actions, he
realized what
happened. The glasses had slipped out of his pocket
unnoticed and
fallen into one of the crates, which he had nailed
shut. His brand
new glasses were heading for China!
The Great Depression was at its height, and Grandpa
had six children.
He had spent twenty dollars for those glasses that
very morning.
"It's not fair," he told God as he drove home in
frustration. "I've
been very faithful in giving of my time and money to
your work, and now
this."
Several months later, the director of the orphanage
was on furlough in
the United States. He wanted to visit all the
churches that supported
him in China, so he came to speak one Sunday night at
my grandfather's
small church in Chicago. Grandpa and his family sat
in their
customary seats among the sparse congregation.
The missionary began by thanking the people for their
faithfulness in
supporting the orphanage.
"But most of all," he said, "I must thank you for the
glasses you sent
last year. You see, the Communists had just swept
through the
orphanage, destroying everything, including my
glasses. I was
desperate.
"Even if I had the money, there was simply no way of
replacing those
glasses. Along with not being able to see well, I
experienced
headaches every day, so my coworkers and I were much
in prayer about
this. Then your crates arrived. When my staff
removed the covers,
they found a pair of glasses lying on top."
The missionary paused long enough to let his words
sink in. Then,
still gripped with the wonder of it all, he continued:
"Folks, when I
tried on the glasses, it was as though they had been
custom-made just
for me! I want to thank you for being a part of
that."
The people listened, happy for the miraculous glasses.
But the
missionary surely must have confused their church with
another, they
thought. There were no glasses on their list of items
to be sent
overseas.
But sitting quietly in the back, with tears streaming
down his face, an
ordinary carpenter realized the Master Carpenter had
used him in an
extraordinary way.
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