Divine Appointment

 

I love walking, especially in the summer months, and have recently tried to get into a routine of having an early evening walk, when the sun is still shining, but it is getting cooler.  Sometimes we walk around the parks, or just around our lovely neighbourhood, looking at the houses and gardens, and appreciating the beauty in creation.  We usually manage to stop and chat to someone on the way, and sometimes it can be quite an adventure.  It is also surprising to see how much inspiration you can get for writing, just by walking and taking in the world around us. 

And sometimes, God sends us out on a divine appointment.

A few weeks ago John and I left the house for an early evening walk. We got to a crossroads and John felt that we should turn left. While walking, I noticed an elderly gentleman walking out of a front garden from one of the houses to the pavement in front of us, and as we overtook him he called out to us and asked us if we knew where a certain road was.  I did recognise the name of the road that he mentioned, but it was not around this area. He seemed a little confused and then admitted to us that he could not remember where he lived.  I asked if it was the house that he had just come out from, and he said no. We asked his name and he told us, but he didn’t have anything on him with his address on it so it was difficult to know where he lived, although thinking about it, it was just as well that he didn’t have his address on him, as unfortunately there are some people in the world who could easily have taken this situation for granted.  Perhaps a telephone number of a close relative would have helped so that we could have called them on his behalf.  He didn’t have a mobile phone on him either, but we had our phones with us. The gentleman was very confused, and without going into too much detail, he had the onset of dementia, which he sort of admitted to, and said he could not remember where he lived. We chatted to him for quite a while and he had a good sense of humour, especially when I asked him how old he was and he said he was 160!

I felt pleased that we had turned left at the crossroads, and that God had used us to help this dear gentleman. 

Cutting a long story short, he remembered that there was a car on his driveway and told us quite a lot of things about his life.  We walked a little way with him, passing some different roads, with a view to eventually getting in touch with the police if we couldn’t find his house. 

By now, the sun had gone down and it was beginning to get darker as evening was drawing in. We had been chatting for a while before we started to walk around trying to find his house, crossing several roads on the way, which he didn't recognise. As we began to walk across the next road, he recognised the name of the road sign and said that is where he lived.  It was nothing like the original name that he mentioned, but he was very confident that it was the road, but he couldn’t remember the house number. We walked quite a way down the road and then he suddenly recognised his house (which didn't have a car on the driveway) and we waited until he put the key in the door, and it certainly was his house. We made sure that he was ok and waited while he called one of his family members from the house phone, and we spoke to them as well to explain what had happened. I won’t go into all the details here as you can appreciate. 

It is such a privilege when we hear from God and He trusts us with an assignment to help someone in need.  We both didn’t actually feel like going for a walk that particular evening and it could have been quite easy to stay in and watch a film, but I felt it in my spirit that we needed to go out.

As it says in Proverbs 3:5-6 KJV “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all they ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths.”  And He certainly did.

God bless