God's Signature

The past few days have been odd.
The other day a package arrived.  I barely glanced at it. Around here, the packages which are delivered are almost guaranteed to be for my husband; besides, he'd told me to look for one he was expecting this day...so I went so far as to assume this was the one, and told him it had been delivered.  After dinner, he tore it open and stopped in confusion as he saw the contents and flung it aside. "This is not mine," he said, "it's yours."

I finished drying the dishes and then my hands and went to look at the package.  It was not something commercially mailed and I did not recognize the name on the return address.  Curiously I read the card  enclosed.  It was a shawl.  A prayer shawl:

 One into which prayers had been knitted as the person who made it interceded for the person who would eventually wear it.  I then read the handwritten note: It was from the wife of the reporter who'd printed a story for Assist News Service (ANS) in which a letter from myself had been quoted as I'd sent  a note in response to their request for people to tell them the ways in which we, the readers, used their Christian /Current events News Service.  She'd been moved by the portion of my story that I'd described in my letter.  I had not mentioned that I have schizophrenia...merely that I'm disabled by the arthritis and how I intercede for people I hear about on their news service who seem to need my prayers.  It was/is  a lovely gift and the unexpectedness and thoughtfulness of it brought tears to my eyes.


She directed to a blog post which would tell me her story she said.  I read it...and in it was the story also of her husband, the reporter.  I was astonished to read that he too, is afflicted with SZ and bipolar disorder as well.  The full circle of unlikely consequences just reeked with the fragrance of God's omniscient purposes.  I then knew I had to write a letter back to the reporter and "confess" to him, my diagnosis as well.  Well, to make a long story a little shorter, I am now going to be featured in a story put out by Assist News!!  Personally, my reaction to this is embarrassment and a feeling of reticence...however, because God has just been doing this kind of thing all over my life, scrawling his great big signature on it, as he makes way for his plans for me.  This ministry God has given me which ties prayer/intercession with the purposes of encouraging both sufferers and family of people with SZ and espcially SZA (schizoaffective disorder) and of promoting public education and knocking down the walls of prejudice and misinformation which abound in regard to schizophrenia--all of this God is working for  the good of his purpose for me which he is gradually revealing bit by bit....

God is on the side of the downtrodden and injustice of any kind irks him to no end...this is clear throughout Scripture.  And there are few groups, especially in cultured, educated and affluent societies like America as misunderstood and as targeted by circumstance and prejudice as are the people who have schizophrenia.  And I believe that his time is now ripe for things to change in this regard...especially within the church.  I have a friend, (one of the many friends I have whom I've never met or spoken to personally), who works on behalf of tackling similar ignorance and injustice for the sufferers of RA (Rheumatoid Arthritis) --and because I suffer from a disease even more mysterious and shrouded in ignorance (psoriatic arthritis) which is related to RA, I follow her blog and Facebook page and receive support from the people in that community as well, because frankly nothing at all similar exists for my disease.  This woman too, is a believer and feels led by God to be a voice for those with RA (her husband is a minister, so I guess this is HER ministry)...And while nothing I have done nor can hope to do has or will be as powerfully effective as her efforts, God has his own plans for me ...what they are , I cannot guess --because daily he keeps me in surprise as he unravels a new page in the book of my life he is writing.

And maybe small coincidences and opportunities such as this are the extent of it...maybe they are not the prelude to bigger and even better things.  And that's okay too.  In fact, honestly, that is the option I'm most comfortable with.  Truthfully, if I can "minister" to a couple of people and never leave my bedroom, I would be more than happy. :)