Friday, September 19, 2008

Coincidence Or Divine Planning?

On Monday evening I drove to Chicago with a member of our congregation. Three years ago, this member felt impressed by God to begin giving regular donations for the purchase of a harp. In mid-summer enough money had been given to place the order and on Tuesday morning this member and I toured the Lyon & Healy harp factory and then brought our new harp back to St. Louis. It was very interesting to see these wonderful, hand made instruments in each phase of their creation. Our member, who is not a musician, was delighted beyond words to see the factory and to hear this new instrument played. Now, rewind to 1986. My wife, Kathy, played the harp professionally for many years. As a student she played with the San Jose State University orchestra and then the San Jose Symphony Orchestra. In every city we lived in, she not only played for our church, but for many civic, social and celebration type events. In 1986 she suffered an injury to her left arm and hand playing the harp that has made it almost impossible for her to play. In fact, we finally sold her harp because the emotional distress it created for her to see it every day in our living room and not be able to play was too much to bear. Fast forward to Sept. 16 and now there is a brand new harp in our sanctuary. No one at our church, and certainly not the member that gave the funds, knew that Kathy had a history as a professional harpist. Kathy sits down and begins to play. Coincidence? Divine planning? We are believing that God can heal her injury as she begins to play again. Can you help us pray for that? I can envision her sitting down one day to play and her realizing that not only is there not any pain anymore, she has strength in her hand and arm that has not been there since 1986. If you pray with us, I'll keep you posted on the progress. For now, I'm believing this is divine planning... :)

3 comments:

Mark Bowman said...

Pastor Louie,
I will join with you and Kathy to pray for a miracle of healing. Please tell the member who donated the funds I will be praying for them also (of course anonymously).
Mark

Louie Salazar said...

Mark, thanks. We really appreciate it. Thanks for reading my blog. P. Louie

Iver said...

Wow, this is exciting!

Several years ago I somehow learned that Kathy used to play the harp but couldn't now because of an injury. It griped my heart in an unusual way, and I prayed for a while that the day would come when she would play it again, but after some time I forgot about it again.

Thanks for sharing the news about the new harp. I will recommit myself to praying that Kathy, in God’s timing, will once again play the harp for His glory!!

Iver