A Miracle That's a Long Time Coming

My friend, John (not his real name) is a self professing atheist. John and I work together and I've known him since the day I started working at my present job. We've always get along but he's constantly jabbing me about being a Christian. It's not mean-spirited. It's like when a local Baltimore Ravens fan would jab at a new employee who is a Washington Redskin fan because he moved from DC to work here.

In response, I would jab John about him being an atheist. But I would always make sure that he hears a logical defense of the Christian faith in hope that some day John would finally see the light.

One afternoon, a while back, I encountered John at the supply cabinet. John was picking out a variety of color markers.

So, I asked John, "Doing a presentation, tomorrow?"

John laughs and said, "No, I'm taking these home. My daughter is doing a poster for school."

I said, "Oh..." and gave him a facial expression to let him know that I disapprove of stealing office supply for home use.

John countered, "I do work at home a lot of time."

With that I left him to his office supply theft.

The next day, John and I went out to lunch together as we normally did when we were working on the same project. As it turned out, the place that we ate was near a office supply store.

After lunch, seeing an opportunity to re-express my opinion about taking home supplies from the office, I turned to John and said, "Would you mind if we stop in there after we finish eating? I need to pick up some office supply for home."

John turned to me, raised his eyebrow, and then said, "hmmm... sure."

There was silence on the way back to work.

When we arrived back at the company parking lot, there were very few parking spaces left and I was forced to parked in a spot where I could barely squeeze my car in. While rolling my car back and forth to get into the spot, I lightly touch the side of the car next to mine. It was so light that even John didn't notice.

As soon as I got out, I went to look at the car next to mine to see if I can find any damage to the other car. I couldn't find a single scratch so I ask John to look as well. He didn't see any damage and urged me to go before the driver of the other car comes out.

To that, I replied, "I'd feel better if he does come out to confirm that I didn't do any damage; then, I can walk away without anything hanging over my head."

The driver of the other didn't come out so I was forced to leave a note to say what had happened. John, vehemently, urged me not to do so. "If you do, he's going to claim ridiculously large amount of damage. Don't do it."

I did leave a note. (I'm not sure if it was because I felt compelled to do the right thing or because John was so vehemently opposed to it.)

A couple of days later, I received a call from the other driver claiming $1800 damage.

John was elated, "I told you so! I told you so! Now, what are you going to do? Do you have the money?"

I don't know what I was going to do. I have the cash, but it was slated for paying the automobile insurance premium that's due at the end of the month. (I always pay for the entire year instead of monthly or quarterly payments because divided payments always include substantial financial charges.)

John, then, said, "If I were you, I'd fight it. I'll testify in court for you if you take him to court."

I was tempted to do so but I realized that it would defeat the purpose of why I left the note: to prove to John that honesty is always the best policy.

"No, I will not take him to court! My God will deal with this situation!"

I wrote the check for the $1800 and waited to see what God would do.

As the due date of my automobile insurance premium quickly approached, I started to get very nervous.

John didn't help as he daily reminded me that I could have avoided this whole thing if I had taken his advice.

A couple of days before the due date, God provided. I received, in the mail, a stock certificate worth a little over $2000. Evidently, one of the companies, that I had invested, experienced a sharp rise in its stock value so high that they decided to split the stock.

John's response: "Yeah, yeah, you just got lucky."

A couple of weeks afterward, John and I encountered each other at the supply cabinet, again. He looked at me and smiled, "I'm not taking this stuff home; it's for my desk."

I haven't seen much of John in the last couple of years because I started to work three days a week; my mom had a stroke and required a lot of my attention.

I bumped into John in the hall the other day. Actually, he chased me down.

John said, "Guess what? I've been taking my family to church. I thought my kids needed the moral values that the church provides."

John, the atheist, going to church. That made my day.