But on the morning of his funeral, it is not the Michael Jackson sighting that I recall, but I think of my friend, Terri McFadden. God had blessed Terri with a talent for songwriting, but like any dream in the arts, earning money from your craft can be a challenge. But for Terri it didn't matter because she had a wealthy husband, who afforded her a great lifestyle. When her husband dropped dead unexpectedly, Terri found herself in a midst of a raging financial storm. While the bills piled up in front of her home, Terri did what many women do . . . . besotted with grief and hopelessness, she "took to her bed," as we say in the South! Terri had recently become a Christian, so she kept calling out to God. Yet he seemed far, faraway.
Finally a friend came to Terri's rescue. She filled a laundry basket with the mail, and brought it inside. One by one she opened the bills, as she sat with Terri and they devised a plan for grieving widow to dig out of the mess. What a great friend! May God bless us all with such a friend!
"But His plans are not our plans," the Scripture tells us. Unbeknownst to Terri as she griefed in her bed for weeks, God had heard her cries, and He had answered her prayers. In the laundry basket was an envelope . . . . with a six figure check in it just waiting to be opened! Terri, an aspiring Motown songwriter, had sold the lyrics to a song for the Jackson 5! Terri has won two Grammy's, and when she co-wrote the theme song for the movie, Men In Black, she used the money to get her Masters in Theology at Fuller Seminary. Today, she is a renowned Bible teacher in the Los Angeles area, and speaks nationally, encouraging women everywhere.
Is there an envelope in your life waiting to be opened? Sometimes to the answer to our prayer is right under our nose, yet we are too overwrought with worry to have the eyes to see it or take the action to open it. Look around! For one thing I am sure of is that we can trust our Heavenly Father to provide our needs in such miraculous ways!
