THE SUBTLE HAND OF GOD

So often when we are in trouble, we call out to God for help and assistance and then we try to figure out how the Divine energy is going to manifest in our lives to solve the problem. But, the Universal Force is a subtle force and almost seems to have a sense of humor sometimes, especially when we try to second-guess it.

Through circumstances, I found myself alone and raising my five children without any help from their father, either emotionally or financially. Sometimes things were really scary, especially when the children were young. I had not worked in a while and was just beginning to rebuild my client base, 1500 miles away from where all my former clients lived. I had been a spiritual teacher for many years, but now it was time to walk my talk and see if my faith was as strong as I was encouraging everyone else's to be.

One day I realized that I had $10 left to my name, a car with very little gas in it, and no food in the house to feed the children for dinner that night. My immediate reaction was to panic, but then I decided to pray instead. I looked at my innocent children and felt in my heart that the Loving Force which created them would not let them starve. I read some spiritual books to calm myself and I prayed.

But then I did what a lot of us do. I tried to figure it out for myself. I began thinking of places I might go to pick up a reading, or things I might take to a swap shop to sell. There is nothing really wrong with this, except that I was limiting God to solutions which only I could think of. I was in the midst of that dilemma when the phone rang.

It was a woman I had met quite by chance the year before. I only met her once and never saw her again, but we had a nice chat about metaphysics when we met and she remembered me. She worked for a program that oversees the welfare of children who are caught up in the court system.

There was a custody battle going on between the parents of a little boy. The father wanted visitation rights and the mother wanted them denied on spiritual grounds. She claimed that the father had killed the child in a past life and he would do it again in this one. She wanted to bring in her minister to testify, but the judge wanted an impartial witness.

"If you can get here this afternoon and let the judge take a deposition and ask you questions about reincarnation, we will pay you $50."

One phone call solved my problem.

I could almost hear the sound of God laughing as I drove to the Court House to give the testimony that would buy us groceries. I never could have figured out that path for the answer to my prayers, and over the years I have found out that God delights in surprising me.

I may be able to envision one or two ways that God could fix things, but the Creative Force of the Universe is limitless and the possibilities and solutions are limitless as well. I have learned to do what I can and surrender the final outcome to the Divine.