Mysterious Ways

My poor, faithful old Saturn finally gave up the ghost in October of 2005. 

It had served me well and logged more than 200,000 miles, but it finally got to the point of no return.



It was ironic that this seemed to mirror my life at the time. 

I was taking off a couple of years from teaching full time to work part time doing massage and physical therapy to see if it would help with my mysterious illness.  It seemed to help for  a while. The doctors had all said there was nothing wrong with me but stress and to take time off from teaching. I just needed some rest...


So I believed them. I worked at my second job (which I loved equally as much and found just as rewarding) to see if lessening the stress level would indeed cure whatever was slowly going very wrong with me.


But it was becoming painfully obvious that I would not be able to do that much more either. 

The bizarre neurological problems I had been having not only weren’t going away, they were getting worse and increasing in frequency.


My legs would go numb for months at a time, making walking difficult. 

My right arm did the same for three weeks. The slightest exertion brought on overwhelming fatigue making me feel like I wore a lead suit.


Walking across blacktop on a hot day completely withered me for at least a half hour afterward to the point that I could do nothing but sit or lie down in an air conditioned room until I cooled off enough to go on.


Intense, burning pain flashing through my body was sometimes accompanied by uncontrollable muscle jerks. The seizures really frightened me, but thank goodness were short-lived.


My left eye kept getting blurry. If I walked into the frozen food aisle at the grocery store the muscles of my right arm would shrink and spasm until my arm curled up like a claw. It was terrifying.


And even more so when they said it was probably Multiple Sclerosis and was incurable. Now, beside all that, I now had to rely on the kindness of friends to get to work (almost 30 miles from home!) for the next two weeks.


And my son, bless his heart, picked me up every night after work (10 p.m.) to take me home (30 miles west of where HE lives) and did not grumble or complain once.


Well, having wrestled with problems (sometimes seemingly insurmountable) all my life, I powered on forward, taking each new symptom as a challenge to overcome or hurdle to leap. 

Though I have to admit that at times leaping became very difficult with legs that would not respond to my brain's commands! And at times it did seem more than overwhelming dealing with it all alone.


One afternoon I was taking the trash out to the dumpster behind work. 

This was a job I hated to do, because it is so hot in the middle of the afternoon and that huge black parking lot I have to cross just radiates heat up and melts what little energy I have. 

Not even suspecting I had MS yet, I thought it was my imagination how quickly the heat sapped my strength.



As I was walking back across the parking lot, I glanced over at the only car in the lot - one I had passed dozens of times before, but had never really noticed. 

There crouched a dark green sports coupe, shrouded in dust, and huddling over the myriad of cobwebs beneath it.


For the first time, I really looked at the car. I said (out loud) "Now, God, there is a car no one is driving. Why can't I drive THAT one?" and then proceeded back to the office.


I had to sit in the air conditioning for a half hour before I felt able to get back to work, but then I went right back to work, forgetting my request. 

Not two hours later, the landlord of the building came in and said, "Oh good! Just the person I wanted to talk to!!!"


Dr. Kirianoff often stopped by the office to drop off mail or just to say hi, always smiling and upbeat. Had he not been so short, he would be a dead ringer for Abraham Lincoln, minus the top hat. I always enjoyed his brief visits, his dry sense of humor. But others at the office said he was a penny-pinching miser and not to be fooled by his chipper enthusiasm for life. He was a scrooge in disguise.

After the hearty greeting, he continued, "I came in yesterday and you were not here. The other lady said your car died and you were having trouble getting to work some days...."


I told him that was true, and that I just didn't have enough saved up to buy anything more than someone else's problems, and laughed good-naturedly. 

He said, laying his palms on the counter, “Well, that is what I am here about today.


"You see, I have this car that is parked in the parking lot out back…. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed it…, but it is just sitting there collecting dust and cobwebs, and no one needs it.


"We only use it as a spare car should one of ours be in the shop or something. But I was just sitting in my office, and a thought came into my head. It was as if a little voice said to me, ‘Now Peter, there is a car no one is driving. Why can't Liz drive that one?’

"So I called my insurance guy just now and had him fully insure it. Tomorrow I will have my son take it down and get it washed up and fill the tank, and I will bring you the key tomorrow before you get off work…. And you can use it until you can get another one….if that is okay with you..?”


I was utterly flabbergasted! Mind you, I don’t think this man even knew my last name. 

And I know for a fact he didn’t know where I lived, or even have my phone number! But he said he just knows that I am always so cheerful and kind, even when things are not going well or I don’t feel so great. And that felt impressed to do something for me, a couple of hours ago and just knew this is something he had to do.

So I decided no more grumbling for me for a while. Even when things were really looking grim, God was listening and reminded me that He can hear the simplest prayer - even in the heat of the day in an abandoned parking lot! - and that He works in mysterious ways. 

Some might just say that every cloud has a silver lining, or it was just a coincidence - an amazing one. Personally, I believe this definitely falls under the category ‘mysterious ways.’


Some of God’s miracles are monumental like Noah’s ark, or Moses parting the Red Sea. But sometimes they are so small and inconspicuous that you might miss them if you’re not looking. And when you do come across one, don’t chock it up to karma or lucky coincidence. God doesn’t deal in luck or karma. His answered prayers are intentional and specific.


So, especially when things are looking their bleakest, remember this story of how God answered a very simple, one-sentence prayer uttered in complete despair and resignation, using the generosity of a semi-stranger.




Liz Carson Rosas
5 August 2009