The MasterCard
The clerk at the checkout stand smiled broadly, her voice
a bit too cheerful: “That will be $145.39!”
I forced myself to smile back. After all, it wasn’t her
fault that my grocery bill seemed to go up every week, no
matter how much skimping I did! I reached in my pocket for
my MasterCard. Such a bill hurts less when you use plastic!
Then my forced smile froze. My credit card wasn’t in my
pocket! In desperation I reached for a different pocket.
Empty. Frantic now, I began slapping my coat, my pants, my
shirt . . . I could feel the eyes of the sales clerk on me
and I stretched my frozen smile a little wider: “I—I can’t
seem to find my credit card!”
A look of genuine concern came over her as she stared at the
mountain of groceries. “Maybe you left it in the car,” she
suggested. “You may leave your order here if you would like
to go out and take a look!”
I followed her gaze to the pile of food waiting to be
bagged, then I nodded. What choice did I have?
I already knew the card wasn’t in my van. I distinctly
remembered putting it in my pocket before entering the
store. But I searched the vehicle anyway, and when I found
the piece of paper and pencil my 11 year-old had given me
when I dropped him off at his piano lessons, I immediately
knew what had happened to my card . . .
His current math lessons focused on comparative shopping,
and he had asked me to write down some products for him to
compare. Naturally, I had forgotten all about it until I had
nearly finished, and when I remembered, I hadn’t run back to
the car for the paper and pencil. Instead, I had searched my
pockets until I found a pen—in the same pocket as my
MasterCard! The card must have fallen out when I retrieved
the pen! The sick feeling that had risen in the pit of my
stomach at the checkout stand intensified. I had lost my
credit card in one of the aisles of the store!
In desperation, I began retracing my steps, but each vacant
aisle further heightened my panic. I just knew that someone
dishonest had picked up my credit card! But even more urgent
at the moment was the question of how I would pay for those
groceries!
All this time, the last line of a song was repeating itself
in my mind: Here in the power of Christ I stand! This same
song had been going around and around in my head throughout
the entire store. It had nearly driven me crazy, but now I
realized that God must have been preparing me for some kind
of a trial, preparing me to stand firm on His promises,
despite the circumstances.
But how could I stand in His power? I mean, this was my
MasterCard! It was my family who needed those groceries that
I now couldn’t pay for!
Nevertheless, God was persistent: “Here in the power of
Christ I stand!”
I gave in. Right there in the middle of the store. I gave
him my MasterCard. I gave Him all the consequences of it
being lost. I gave Him the problem of how to pay for my
groceries if the card wasn’t found. I even gave Him the
potential nightmare of what could happen if the card fell
into the wrong hands. I was immediately filled with peace
and clarity of thought. I knew what I had to do. I had to go
back to the checkout stand and tell the clerk that I had
lost my card.
A “closed” sign was now poised on the conveyor belt and the
poor clerk’s smile had become strained as she and another
clerk rifled through my mountain of purchases. Not
surprisingly, she was genuinely glad to see me! When I
admitted that my MasterCard was gone, the second clerk went
to the office to check if someone had found it. When she
returned, my card was in her hand. It had just been turned
in.
I was starting to breathe a prayer of thanksgiving when she
said, “Ma’am, I’m afraid it’s been canceled.”
“Ca—canceled?” I stammered. “What—what do you mean,
cancelled?”
“It’s store policy, Ma’am,” she explained. “We always call
in lost credit cards.”
I bit my lower lip. Were the circumstances different, I
would heartily approve of this policy.
“Let’s try it anyway,” she suggested. “Maybe it hasn’t gone
through yet!”
But sure enough, the interaction was not approved. Now
what??? I couldn’t believe that God would have returned my
MasterCard only for me to not be able to use it to pay for
my groceries. You handle this one, too! I breathed.
“Let me call the office and see if we can do anything,”
suggested the clerk.
In a few moments, I was speaking to the credit card company
on the office phone. They released the hold on my card, and
I was able to pay for my groceries. Another answered prayer.
But all of this took time. When I glanced at my watch, it
was already time for me to pick up my kids from their piano
lessons. Just as I was tempted to worry, however, the line
of the song re-echoed through my mind: Here in the power of
Christ I stand!
Though I arrived at the piano teacher’s house 10 minutes
late, she was just finishing up my son’s lesson!
Here in the power of Christ I stand!
Lyn Chaffart Answers2Prayer Ministries,
www.Answers2Prayer.org
A part-time Speech Pathologist, Lyn is also a homeschooling
mom who writes devotionals and short stories on the side.
She serves as the director of mini-sermons for
Answers2Prayer Ministries (www.Answers2Prayer.org)
and is webmaster for Scriptural Nuggets (www.sermonillustrator.org/minisermons/).
Besides writing for Answers2Prayer, Lyn has also written
devotionals and stories for Eternal Link, write2theheart,
the Sand Dollar, Gospelines, Moments of Reflection, and
2theHeart.