I hope you don’t mind if I get real once again sharing my personal life with you, but this is just too good to keep to myself. The Friday before Christmas I saw my eye doctor again. He confirmed that the eye drops were keeping the pressure in my eyes at a safe level and prescribed two eye drops, one to apply in the morning and the other to apply in the evening. He emphasized that if I ever stop using them I will go blind. His assistant faxed Walmart (where I get my other meds) for a one month supply with twelve refills to get me through a whole year. She also gave me a voucher for a one time free month’s supply of one of the drops. Later that day I received a text from Walmart that I had two prescriptions to pick up for a total of $270. Now I am barely keeping my head above water, so that additional monthly cost would sink me. I would no longer be able to remain in my townhome, so my life would be completely turned upside down.
The next morning when I met my brothers in Christ for breakfast, I laid out my situation and asked for prayers. Right there at that table in Cracker Barrel the six of us prayed, including the young son of one of the guys. I continued to pray as I attended the children’s presentation on Sunday. Monday morning (Christmas Eve) I decided to go through a stack of mail. There were two letters from my mortgage company. I knew I wasn’t behind on my payments so I couldn’t imagine what they were. I tore open one of them and there was a check for $1,453. I must have stared at it for fifteen minutes. It was what one of my friends calls a “wow moment”. There was no explanation with the check, so I tore open the other letter. It was an escrow statement explaining the refund of over payments to my escrow account and stating that my monthly mortgage payment will be reduced by about $150 beginning in January.
As soon as I caught my breath, I called Walmart to make sure they would accept the voucher and find out how much I would owe for the other one. They told me the voucher was for a brand name and both of the prescriptions were generic so they could not take it. I called the doctor’s office to let them know the voucher was useless to me. His assistant apologized then told me to hold while she checked with the pharmacy for the medical group in their building. She came back saying that the cost for both meds at their pharmacy would be $35. Before she finished her sentence, I asked her to send the prescriptions to them and I will pick them up after Christmas. That evening I attended the candlelight service I wrote about in my last blog post. I have never opened so many perfect gifts on Christmas Eve in my entire life.
Why is it when I pray with complete faith and confidence that God can and will answer my prayer, I am still caught by surprise by the way He responds? You won’t be surprised that the events of Christmas Eve reminded me of the words of a gospel song. “Expect the unexpected when God’s about to move. He will meet our every need in ways we wouldn’t choose. Be still and know He’s in control His power will come through. Expect the unexpected and watch what God will do!” What a great and loving God we serve!