All Things Working

The Scriptures say “all things work together for good” (Romans 8:28) and in recent weeks I’ve seen it is so.

My friend James Ray passed away in the fall, but before he passed he made it a point to help me out with some mission projects. I was looking for bicycles for some of our homeless friends to get around town on and James rounded one up for me. It was really inspiring to see someone in his last days thinking of how he could still make a difference.

The bike James found for me was a children’s bike and a little small for the adults I was trying to help. But I knew it was just a matter of time before I would find some kid who could use it. Then back in March, Second B’s Children’s Ministry hosted a children’s car seat and bike safety check sponsored by Covenant Hospital and they were giving away free bicycle safety helmets to children. Reginald, one of our Kids Hope kids came and I asked him if he had a bike helmet. He told me that he didn’t. “Well, now you’ve got one so you can be safe on your bike,” I said. “I don’t have a bike,” he said. You can now hear the bells going off in my head. “I think I can do something about that,” I said.

So I call up Jerry Bailey, Second B’s resident bike expert, and I asked him to fix up the bike. The next thing I know, I walk in the door and the bike is sitting bright and shiny in the middle of the church office. It’s as good as new.

Two days later I took Joey Marcades, one of our graduating high school seniors, went with me to deliver the bike. He helps me get it out of my car and then Reginald comes out of his house with his never-before-used bike helmet on his head. Joey and I watch from the yard as Reginald takes off down the sidewalk. “What do you say?” I yell after him. “Thank you,” he yells back.

When I get back to the church I tell Susie White our secretary about all that had happened. First James, then the Children’s Ministry, then Kid’s Hope, then Jerry Bailey, and then Joey Marcades. “Sounds like a God thing to me,” she said. “It sure does,” I said.

And then the postscript. We were sitting in staff meeting when Basil and Carroll Melnyk show up at church. They had heard about Ray’s bike. They had come to bring me another one. They wheeled it in. It is adult size – and one of my homeless friends already has first dibs on it.

The Scriptures are right, “All things work together for good.” And that’s a God thing.