Proverbs 18:16 Revisited

The first time I read Proverbs 18:16, I believed it. We've all been given gifts to operate in, so why wouldn't this verse apply to all of us...to me?  This verse, this promise ...it so resonated with my spirit the first time my eyes laid hold of it! And I began to operate in that promise available to each of us by way of a prayer uttered years ago:

"Lord, may my gifts make room for me,
and bring me into the presence of kings!"

One of the first times I became aware of this verse/promise being fulfilled in my life was in 1998. President Bill Clinton was visiting the school just across the street from my house. I have graciously been given the spiritual gift of faith, so it was not a stretch for me to pray and believe for favor with and access to the President of the United States!

Since he was in our neighborhood, we wanted the chance to be a witness to him.  And my gift of faith made room for me!  The Secret Service came over to our house and said, "The President would like to meet you." The testimony is too long for this post, but we were able to share the love of Christ to President Bill Clinton on the day the Starr Report (Monica Lewinsky scandal) hit Congress. The details of our visit hit the Associated Press with this statement published in some U.S. newspapers: "Jesus loves you, Mr. President."   What radical news is this, that Jesus loves the World's Most Famous Adulterer on this day in history? As President of the United States, he was one of this world's kings, but God simply used his position of power to platform His message of love!

I always thought that this testimony was the most significant example of Proverbs 18:16 operating in my life. Until now.

Beginning the day after Thanksgiving last year, my life was sovereignly and supernaturally intersected with Heidi and Tommy Gaillard and their family. As with most connections that God orchestrates, there was common ground. My brother had a bone marrow transplant just like their daughter Jamie had.  My parents knew what it was like to travel to a different city to be at their child's bedside for months.

Our Family Thanksgiving

Back up one night. Thanksgiving night, I was with my Dad, and we were discussing our family Thanksgiving gathering scheduled for Saturday. There are 32 of us, and we always have a huge feast.  My Dad made a comment that I have never heard him make regarding our holiday meal:  "I wish we had a family to share all our extra food with."

The next day (Friday) the Lord prompted me to go visit Jamie. I had not visited her yet because I was waiting to go with my friend Cheryl, but that opportunity hadn't presented itself yet. I reluctantly went. I had only met her and her parents on several ocassions. I am not at all comfortable with hospital visits, especially by myself.  But I was compelled to go, and I shutter to think of what I would have missed had I not gone!

Jamie.

Jamie was sleeping, but I got to spend some time with her mom, Heidi, who is about my age. During that visit, the Lord said that The Gaillards were the family He wanted our family to share our meal with. Two days later, I was carrying my first delivery of food to the Gaillard Family. Jamie facebook messaged me the sweetest thank you note, which I will always treasure.

All that transpired because of my Dad's gift and desire to help people (what the Bible calls the gift of helps). I've seen it modeled by him and my Mom my whole life. On this day I was simply operating in his gifts for him :).  As for me, my gifts are different: encouragement, intercession, prophecy, faith, and some administrative gifts. I have traditionally been honored to serve "kings" in this way. But organizing meals, cooking, providing practical needs for strangers...that's just not my gift! Ask my five sisters. I have brought the same "no oven or stove needed" dishes to all our family gatherings since I was 19 years old.I am usually the one to say, "Tell me what to bring!" Then I sit nearby the whirlwind while they put everything together for our huge family gatherings. 

Three weeks later, the verdict came from Jamie's own Facebook status: she was being given only days to live and needed a miracle.  My thoughts: How can I serve the family, Lord? Pray with them? Organize prayer for Jamie? Encourage them? Believe in a miracle with them?

Jamie and her brothers.

Jamie and her parents.

The Lord then made it clear to me: My gift would be containers of food for a family of 12. Not for one day, but for as long as needed. ("But this is not my gift, Lord!") When you are stretched beyond your gifting, you have no choice but to do it by faith.  It was just days before Christmas and so many people were out of town or tending to their own families. Where would the food come from? The Lord said He would put manna on the ground daily and I just needed to go out and find it. What transpired after that was amazing. Food and funds for meals were provided by friends of Jamie, by church members who only knew her by her testimony, and by complete strangers. The assistant manager at Publix personally loaded up a cart of food for the family and paid for it. An envelope of $100, $50...just handed to me. Food prepared and brought to the church for me to deliver.

Every day I drove to the hospitial, dropped off the food at the curb, hugged the family, and then set out to discover where the manna would be found the next day.  While Jamie was only given days to live, the Lord reversed the shadow on the staircase (2 Kings 20) and her remaining time had been stretched into over a week now, giving her Christmas with her family. 

My friend, Christine.

Then God helped me to pass the baton to my friend Christine who has amazing community connections, and we set out two by two to gather that manna, and followed the family into a Hospice facility.

Christine and I don't quite know when and how it all happened, but over the next several days we became family, spending hours with the Gaillards, talking, laughing, crying, praying, running errands. We came with gifts in our hands--the practicial provision of food for the family--but we were the beneficiaries. These were not ordinary people. Our gifts of food made room for us and brought us into their presence in a very intimate way.



Allison, Christine and Breanna.
Allison shaved her head in Jamie's honor.



Until this time, I had not seen Jamie. In fact, I had not seen her since November. I wanted to be respectful of the family's privacy, as they had been told to say their goodbyes one by one. While they were trusting God for a miracle, they rested in the knowledge of His sovereignty and took the practical steps advised by Hospice. So, Christine and I remained in the wings.

On Sunday Heidi asked me to go into Jamie's room to speak something to her daughter. I felt like an intruder walking into that room, but my pastor had counseled me to do what the family had asked me to do and to take my cue from them. Tommy got up and said, "Let me give you some privacy" and closed the door. Jamie was not conscious, but Hospice made it clear that the hearing is still acute, even in this state. I walked out of that room changed.

My Facebook status for Sunday, January 2, at 4:27 p.m reads as follows:

"I was just unexpectedly invited into the presence of a queen.

It was humbling and unforgettable. What Beauty, what Dignity."

Jamie's Mom, Heidi.

That night, we were invited into Jamie's room for prayer and communion. We were believing for a miracle. We had no way of knowing that this was her last day on earth. I watched a father stand on the right side of his 26-year old daughter's death bed singing, "God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He's so good to me." I witnessed a fiancé standing on the left side of his future bride's deathbed, with pain and peace so intricately mingled across His face. I stood next to a mother at the foot of her dying daughter's bed, her eyes and gentle smile radiating such peace, giving evidence that this woman had been with Jesus.

I reflect back to that night. I was not just in the presence of a queen. I was in the presence of a royal family. Courage, faith and trust in a Sovereign God is the crown they wear. Jamie's parents, brothers and sister and fiancé displayed a grace that can only come from a personal knowledge of Christ and a surrender to His perfect ways.



Christine and I
with Tommy and Heidi Gaillard.

Tommy and Heidi and their family have thanked us over and over for serving them. But we are the grateful ones. As for me, I first came reluctantly and out of my comfort zone, bearing containers of food. And always true to His promises and His Word, my gift made room for me, and brought me into the presence of greatness. Never had we met such a humble, gentle, kind, courageous and beautiful family who shared some of the most intimate moments of their family with us.

I'm so glad to have shared this experience with my friend, Christine. We will both never be the same.