A Helping Hand from God

Having been a professor and scientist for much of my life, I have collected a huge amount of documents, files and books. Added to that are some files dating back to childhood. Needless to say this mass of paper would be quite useless unless well organized. It is an exercise that has to be repeated every few years as new files are added, some become redundant enough to discard and some get disorganized with use. The exercise stretches over days. My most recent shot at it was last month.

While the task of this sorting is on, I remove batches from shelves and look through them in different locations of the home ranging from different tables and desks as also the bed. A double bed is a comfortable place for such an exercise because one can lay out the files on one of the beds while sitting against the headboard of the bed on the other against a fluffy pillow with a coffee or tea mug on the side table. It is a habit I developed in college residence when one had only one small room in the residence to live in. The discarded papers are thrown on the floor, to be picked up for a waste paper bin periodically, some to be burnt because while I recycle as much paper as one can, some waste personal document have to be burned so that they may not get into wrong hands.

The final step in this sorting is personal and recent documents that I went through while sitting on the bed. In the process an important plastic card slipped out and some how landed on the floor under the bed. I do not recall any other instance in life of having done such a thing with an important card but somehow it happened this time. I still do not know how. The task of sorting was completed this Tuesday. The misplaced card lay there peacefully through Tuesday night. On Wednesday there were urgent tasks to be completed outside the home where this card was needed.

Now it so happens that a family of migrant villager lives in a hut constructed on a vacant lot in my neighborhood. They are nice hardworking people and do chores for neighbors in return for small payments. They have two sons. A retired professor in the area, as well as me has encouraged and helped the sons to get good education so as to improve their lot.  The older son however gave up midway through school but with the grace of God the younger one completed high school earlier this year. He got admission to one of the best universities in town for a degree in computer sciences. Most days, in the evenings after college, and some mornings on holidays, the boy still visits me for some help with his studies, or a small payment. In return he helps me in some odd jobs around the home for about an hour a day.

This Wednesday, that was yesterday, he suddenly dropped in unannounced in the morning saying that his college had announced an unexpected holiday. He had brought his laptop along for some work but said he would do any needed chores first. The bedroom needed cleaning and I requested him for the same while I went to the kitchen for breakfast. Suddenly he yelled from the room,

“Uncle there is a card under the bed.” He had located that card while sweeping under the bed.

I was really surprised that I had misplaced the card but nevertheless thanked him profusely while also giving him a reward - an extra day’s payment and a paper punch that he needed. Had that card not been located, I would have been in a tizzy that day while looking for it for work later that day. It is a government issued card and takes several days to replace. I had urgent works that needed the original and not just a photocopy that I keep in abundance of essential documents.

Five unusual things happened in this incident. First was my losing the card, second was the card getting under the bed, third my helper boy getting a holiday, fourth his deciding to drop in and fifth his deciding to clean my room and finding the card. While many may regard all this as a series of coincidences, I regard such events differently – A helping hand from God. He has similarly come to my aid at different points in life in the most miraculous of ways at times of urgent need.

Praise the Lord. Place your love and trust in him and all shall be well.