Constance Foster tells of an elderly widow whose husband's death had left her
almost destitute. No longer able to meet the heavy expense of maintaining her
home, Mrs. Horton asked for prayer that she might by some miracle be able to
keep it, together with all her cherished possessions. A few months later she
wrote: "I prayed, but nothing happened." The house was to be sold at auction the
following week. Mrs. Horton was heartbroken.
During the next few days Mrs. Horton went through her house with tear-stained
eyes, sorting and discarding the accumulation of long years of living there. In
the attic she ran across an old stamp collection that had been in her husband's
family for years. She almost threw it in a pile of rubbish, for of what use were
a lot of old stamps? But somehow, something made her put it aside to save.
A year went by before she thought of it again. The house had been sold. She was
bitter. Her prayer had not been answered. Then one day she happened to see in a
large city newspaper a list of the values of certain rare stamps. Mrs. Horton
made a special trip to see the dealer, carrying the old collection with her, and
when she left his office she was dazed, for in her purse she had his check for
nearly $11,000.
The big old house had been much too large anyway for an old woman to care for
comfortably. She did not need all that space. Today she realizes it. What she
required was smaller living quarters, together with enough money in the bank for
her expenses. That's exactly what God gave her in answer to her supposedly
unanswered prayer.
Sometimes our plans fail that God's plans for us may succeed.
By Paul C. Heubach, Signs of the Times, February 1980. With permission from Dale
Galusha [email protected]
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