A few days ago I posted a story about a man I had stopped for on the streets, a man who was lonely, depressed, and alone … an intelligent, artistic man in need …

I had stopped and prayed for him in the middle of a hectic Saturday morning.  I had prayed for hope, joy, peace, for a community to come around him, for friendships … and I had realised that we (my husband and I and others if they wanted to come on the journey with us) needed to be community to him …

Well I posted my story, and although I had much work to do, and although I usually spent time with God during my son’s kindy hours, I felt to pop up the street and buy a take away coffee.  Then and not later, although “later” was more “logical” …

I looked at my watch and it was 11.10 … I had about 10 minutes for a coffee pick up and I would be back with 2 hours left to get some work completed … I could even fit in a soak.

God had other plans!

I jumped into the car and drove around the corner and as I drove I saw a familiar outline.  I had been set up by a loving God … it was the man I had stopped for on Saturday and I knew there and then I was buying him a coffee … I would be “eating in”.

I ditched my plans and drove into a park right in front of the coffee shop, walked down the street smiling, and said “hello I had just been thinking about you” …

He smiled, and said he had been planning to call to return the CDs I had lent him … which, he said, he had found very interesting.

I invited him to come and have a coffee.  He said he didn’t have any money.  I said “it’s my shout”  … and agreeing, he walked somewhat shyly down the street with me into the store.

We sat and talked for well over an hour.  I was aware of timing, but I was also aware of the fact that God was clearly up to something in his life … 

He was extending an invitation of friendship … “a friend in need is a friend indeed” … God is always our friend in need … and so He is always a friend indeed and … in deed!

I could see clearly that God was pursuing Him, and said so a few times throughout our conversation.  I started to tell him how I had seen him the other day … full of hope, his face shining, with joy, as I had prayed for him … that who he had been was no longer relevant, not God’s design for him, but for far more than what he could see as the future … I repeated that if God could do for Graham Cooke and for David Wagner what He had done then He could do it again for him … God is no respecter of persons!

He told me how he had started to feel hope and as he did he started to sit upright and he stared straight into my face.  He told me how he had made a friend two days prior and I pointed out that this was answered prayer, that the prayer, which had been in line with God’s heart for him was for community to surround him … and he agreed, recognising the “coincidence” of the new friendship he had forged within 24 hours of me releasing God’s will in heaven for him onto earth through my prayer on Saturday …

I left him on an “up” note … for we had discussed some pretty heavy stuff during our chat … and as we stood on the pavement saying goodbye he asked if I lived in the area.  I responded that yes we did, just around the corner, but that he did not have to track us down, we were not going to shake him off … and that he did not have to wait on the street to “bump” into us, but that we would meet again and that he would meet my husband … for I knew beyond a doubt that we too were called to be community to him, and to others, and I “saw” him again, beyond my own fears, and knew that he could and he would be transformed by God’s love, just as myself, Graham Cooke and David Wagner had been … if he chose to accept the invitation of friendship that God was so clearly giving him … and I knew that if he did accept God’s invitation of friendship he would see again and again that …

God is Good!