My son-in-law related a spiritual experience.  He lost his wallet, and really needed it for his trip to Spokane.  He figured it had to be in their bedroom, so he undertook to clean the room.  He looked for several hours.  His wife, Katie, suggested that they ought to have family prayer, but he was too busy searching for his wallet.  Katie took the kids to visit their grandparents while he continued searching.  While she was gone, he got desperate, and decided he'd better pray about his lost wallet.  He knelt down and did so.  Within two minutes of getting up from prayer, he found his wallet in a place where he'd already searched.

A couple of months ago Tim Lethlean told of finding his lost wallet.  He had been hunting near Granite, Oregon when he found a lost dog.  After inquiring around, he learned that the dog belonged to a family in Haines.  He grumbled inwardly a little about all the trouble the dog was causing him, but he went out of his way and returned the dog to its owners.

The next day Tim was again hunting when at evening time he realized that he'd lost his wallet.  He had been over many miles of wilderness, and finding the wallet would be all but impossible.  But he had a few minutes in which he could search, and he realized that the Lord knew where the wallet was.  So he knelt and prayed.  Then he started up a trail where he'd gone earlier.  He hadn't gone far when the last ray of the setting sun shone between two trees and spotlighted the wallet lying in the trail.  Tim said that he doesn't believe that he'd have ever found the wallet if he hadn't made the effort and gone out of his way for some strangers the day before, and returned their lost dog.

My daughter, Ivy, has a college music class in which she is required to attend a number of musical productions.  If you attend the required number, you pass the class.  If you don't attend all of the required productions, you fail.  Two of the productions had to be choral concerts, and there were only two possible concerts which would fill the requirement.  On the day that tickets to the concert were being sold, Ivy went to the ticket office later in the day, only to learn that they were already sold out!  On the day of the concert she went early to get in line for the few tickets that people might return if they weren't going to use them.  She found 70 people lined up ahead of her.  Every now and then a ticket or two would become available, and someone would be admitted to the concert hall; but Ivy realized that with so many people ahead of her, she'd never be admitted.  It was hopeless.  She'd fail the class.

"I'll just have to pray for a miracle," she decided.  So she did.  She was standing at the back of the line.  The next thing she noticed was a man walking straight toward her.  He stopped in front of her and said, "I bought this ticket for my daughter, but she isn't going to be able to attend.  Would you like to have it?"  She was so excited that she was inside before she realized that she hadn't even offered to pay the man for the $3 ticket.  She looked for him afterward, but couldn't find him.

My college student son, Matt, asked if we knew where in the works of Shakespeare it says, "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse."  I got out our three-volume set of the complete works of Shakespeare and gave it to him.  His genetics professor told the class that he'd give 5 extra points to anyone who could identify the source of the quote.  We thought that perhaps we could find the quote by locating a story about a king.  We found, however, that Shakespeare wrote histories about numerous English kings.  We gave up the search.

The next morning I was looking for something in my journals.  I happened upon an entry concerning the lost wallets of my son-in-law and of Tim Lethlean, and how they both found their wallets miraculously after praying for that specific blessing.  The Shakespeare books were sitting there beside me, so I said, "Heavenly Father, Matt would really like to know the source of this quote.  Thou knowest where it is, and if it's important, would thou show me where to find it?"  I then looked at the pile of three books, and thoughtfully chose the middle one.  I opened it and found a one-paragraph synopsis of the history of some king.  I read it because it was kind of interesting.  I then turned two pages and read "King Richard III, 'A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse,’ Act V, Scene IV.”  I turned to that reference and found King Richard on foot in the midst of a battle with the French.  His horse had been slain, and he cried out "A horse, a horse, my kingdom for a horse."

Those books of Shakespeare contain 1320 pages of fine print.

I told my family about my experience.  Another of my sons said, "I'm surprised that he reads Shakespeare."

I said, "Who, the professor?"

"No, Heavenly Father."

The moral of the story is that Heavenly Father not only knows everything, but each of us.  He cares not only about our major concerns, but about the smallest details.  He says repeatedly in the scriptures, "Seek and ye shall find, ask and it shall be opened unto you."  Probably nothing is more repeated in the scriptures than that.  I think that He really means it.

I pair these stories up with another experience.  One Friday morning my son, Eli, asked, "Where is Paul Hoelscher's book?"  Paul teaches an art class that Eli attends every Friday afternoon.  He'd borrowed a wildlife book from Paul two weeks before, and wanted it for that afternoon's class.  I remembered standing his current picture-in-progress on his easel.  I stood the book on the easel with the picture.  Then Thanksgiving happened, with lots of nieces and nephews who circulated through Eli's room.  The book was nowhere to be found.  After he'd gone to school, I began a systematic search of the house.  I looked under every bed, in every bookcase, and in every unlikely place.  I went through every room.  The book was lost.  I quit looking, but it haunted me.  Class time was approaching, so I decided to look again.  As I walked through the living room to Eli's bedroom, I thought, "This one is going to require prayer."  So I knelt by Eli's bed and said in effect, "We've lost Paul's book, and don't know where to find it.  You know where it is.  Please direct me to it."  I got up and walked around the end of his bed to his chest of drawers.  Standing on his chest of drawers was a picture of Christ which leaned against the bookcase.  I took hold of the picture of Christ, pulled the top toward me, and there was the missing book standing behind the picture!  I went back to the bed, knelt again, and found myself having to choke back several sobs as I thanked Heavenly Father for such a direct answer to prayer.  I realized that if He cares about little things like lost books and wallets, impossible tickets, and obscure Shakespearean quotes, He'll surely take care of the big things, too.  I must remember this, and be more trusting.

 

Addendum, 29 April 2004 journal entry:

Heidi was sick this morning.  Kevin stopped at the shop and asked if I could check in on her occasionally.  Instead, I closed the shop, got Heidi's three boys, and went home, leaving her alone so that she could rest.

I had deadlines to meet.  Not being able to work this morning put me on a very tight schedule.  This evening Margie, Ivy and Jamie came to the shop and worked for 2 hours to get me back on schedule.  Their combined six hours of labor were very much appreciated.  Margie and Ivy sanded raised panel doors that I'd made, and Jamie stained them.  Thanks to them I'll be able to meet my deadline tomorrow.

At 5:00 Margie came to me with a project that required my wallet.  I'd had it in my pocket this morning, but had taken it out while tending the Bradford boys at home.  I went home with her to get my wallet.

I thought I'd left it on the shelves outside the music room.  It wasn't there.  It wasn't anywhere.  After looking in all of the likely places, I told Margie I'd have to pray about it.  I didn't have time to waste searching.

I went in the music room, shut the door and knelt.  I explained my problem to Heavenly Father, paused, and had a thought flash through my mind to look in the Isuzu pickup.  I knew that wasn't where the wallet was, so I closed my prayer and continued trying to retrace my steps in my mind.

I could remember taking the wallet out of my pocket because I was working, or going to work, and it was either bothering me or might get lost while I worked.  For the life of me, though, I could not remember where I was when I took it out of my pocket.

I began a new prayer.  This time instead of closing my prayer, I let my mind go blank.  Usually the answer I'm seeking will be the next thought that comes.  Instead, it was the Isuzu again.

I struggled for an answer to my prayer for a couple of more minutes, and then gave up.  I had no idea where to look.  The only thing I'd come up with in my prayer was "Look in the Isuzu."  I knew that wasn't an option, but having no other, I went straight out the door and looked in the Isuzu.  There was my wallet.  I'd put it on the seat while I changed a flat tire.

 

I notice that these six stories have a common thread other than prayer.  That thread is service.  I suspect that prayers are more effective when they're offered for the benefit of others, or when Heavenly Father is able to answer a person's prayer as a "thank you" for helping one of His children.

My son-in-law needed his wallet for a trip to Spokane.  He was going there because his brand-new convert's ride to Spokane had just fallen through, and as a last resort he had asked my son-in-law to take him.

Tim Lethlean was sure that he wouldn't have found his wallet if he hadn't gone out of his way to help a stranger the day before.

Ivy simply needed a personal blessing; but I'll bet that if the full story were known, her benefactor had first prayed to know whose life he could most bless by an act of service in giving his concert ticket away.  The sad thing is that he'll never know how he was an answer to prayer.  Most of the things we do are probably like that.

My motive in trying to find the Shakespearean quote was a desire to help Matt.  The same was true in my search for the lost book.  I wanted to help Eli and Paul.

Would I have found my lost wallet so easily if I hadn't first helped Heidi?

There are two tests to discipleship.  One is a willingness to be inconvenienced for others.  The other is to remember to pray for the things we need, and to have faith that we'll receive that for which we ask.