We were moving furniture from my mother-in-law’s home to the little two bedroom cabin nestled in the hills of northeastern Oklahoma, the only hills in Oklahoma I might add! As we were cleaning out drawers in the old dressers at the cabin in preparation of moving in the furniture, I found a church newsletter dated, May 15, 1976. Enclosed was an article written by my father-in-law, Dr. W.T. Dougharty entitled, He Heard My Cry, dated April 27, 1976. It was written a few days after he suffered his first heart attack, just four months prior to the birth of his first grandchild, our oldest daughter.
The day we’d left for Oklahoma we had gotten a phone call telling us that the house we had been living in for two years had sold and we would need to be out in three and a half weeks. God had miraculously placed us there after our house sold. We thought we would never leave there; it felt as if it was where God wanted us. Somehow, we believed He would work it out and we would be able to buy the house. Have you ever thought you knew what God wanted for you, just to find out that you were wrong?
Following that phone call I found myself very emotional and panicked about where we were going to live. I had several questions: How were we going to afford to move? Because of Mark’s disability, could we manage to qualify for a loan in order to buy a home? How were we going to find a place to live and move in three and a half weeks? To say I was on an emotional roller coaster was putting it mildly.
The night after I found the newsletter, we were lying in bed. I was crying– not a surprise! Mark was very patient with me as I asked question after question for which he had no answer, other than; we have to trust that God is going to work it all out. His answer was not good enough for me at that moment. I finally gained control of myself, stopped crying and opened my Bible to read before going to sleep. Out dropped the newsletter I’d found the night before. As I began to read the article my father-in-law had written 34 years earlier, I started to cry once again. I pointed to the article, unable to speak. Mark said, “What is it?” Managing to regain my composer, I began to read to him the second paragraph of the article. “A few days ago, I was facing the most difficult hours of my life but I called on the Lord for strength and assurance and He gave them in abundant supply. My special verse was Psalm 34:4, “I sought the Lord, and He heard my cry and delivered me from all my fears.”
These tears were different from the ones I’d shed just minutes earlier, not that I expected Mark to know the difference. These tears were from an overwhelming sense of the Father’s love and concern for me, little ole me! How awesome that my Abba knew on April 27, 1976 that I would be lying in bed late at night in that cabin on July 17, 2010 needing a timely word from Him.
Those words written by my father-in-law, now gone for 12 years, penned so long before and found at just the right time; were words given to me by my Heavenly Father so that I would realize once again how much He loves me.
I stand amazed how God, the Creator of this great universe knows our every need before we do and always provides a timely word from His Word– even 34 years later. Day after day as I have spent time meditating in the Word, He has given me a word. Some have been specifically for me; some were given in order to share them with someone who was in need of a timely word from their Heavenly Father. Oh, that we would realize the depth, the beauty, and, the incredible gift from the One who loves His children so intimately that He would give us the treasure of a timely word from His Word.
Father, thank you that 34 years ago, You knew the word I would need lying in that little cabin nestled in the hills of northeastern Oklahoma on July 17, 2010. Thank you that your Word reassures me that when I seek You and cry out to You, You hear me. I am grateful for your promise to deliver me from all my fears. How loving and awesome you are, my great God!
“For You make me glad by your deeds, O Lord; I sing for joy at the works of Your hands. How great are Your works, O Lord, how profound Your thoughts.”Psalm 92:4-5
dianne