Praise Him Through The Midnight - written by Alfred (a short story for kids)
Once upon a time in a city called LA, there lived a young Christian woman named Jennifer. She had been a Christian since her junior high school days and now she was a grown woman who was active in her church and an inspiration to all those she came across. She was now a mother and unfortunately her husband had died while fighting for the US in the war in Iraq. She was left alone to take care of their baby. Well, it had been a few years since he passed so even though she still missed him and he would always be alive in her heart she had moved past the grief.
Jennifer however was facing a new crisis right now. She was behind on a whole lot of payments. The bills just seemed to keep rising and rising and to top it off it seemed like in other for her not to loose the house she would have to add one more job to the two jobs she already held. Now that would mean a single mother working three jobs and taking care of a little baby girl. Now that’s difficult – I mean really really really difficult. Being a single Mum on its own is difficult enough but adding three jobs to the mix plus church activity is a whole other story.
Jennifer took on the challenge not because she wanted to but because she had to. Sadly, it didn’t solve the problem of paying her bills because the price of things went up. Gas prices went up to almost two times the normal price. Electricity bills went up a notch and prices of items in the Grocery Store went up much too. The US economy was going through a down time. So even though Jennifer had increased her income, the prices for her usual expenses had gone up too so Jennifer couldn’t get the benefit she had anticipated from a third job.
However, she knew that she dare not lose the third job now because she would not even be able to maintain her previous standard of living.
In any case, the third job came with its stress problems.
Within months Jennifer was sick and in the hospital. She had to over pay a lady in her neighborhood whom people spoke well of to take care of her baby; in the lady’s home. Jennifer could barely pay for her hospital bill and within a few weeks if she didn’t get out of the hospital she would be flat broke. That would live her with no where to go, she had no living relatives. What would become of her? The fear of the unknown tormented Jennifer every night on her hospital bed. Some times at midnight she would cry and cry and cry. Her medical condition was getting worse and even though the doctors avoided saying it directly you could see that the sickness was developing into something worse – much worse. Something that is a lot more serious than a stress related illness. Something deadly. Jennifer tried out calling up people. She did all that the people of the world would suggest should be done but still nothing helped. Things still looked darker ahead.
One day while Jennifer was staring out the hospital window from her hospital bed she saw a sparrow. She observed the bird for a few seconds then suddenly like a soft but precise bolt of lighting she remembered what Jesus said in Matthew 10 : 29 – 31 that, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? And not one of them will fall to the ground apart from your Father. But even the hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear not, therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.”Jennifer meditated on that scripture and she smiled for the first time in a long while because her heart wrapped afresh around the truth of that scripture. She had nothing to worry about. In-spite of how bad things looked God was in control.
He’s numbered the strands of hair on her head. He cares about her that much. He cared about her so much that he sent his only begotten son to die on the cross for her. Why should she worry? Why? There could never be a reason good enough for someone who is confident in God’s love for them to ever worry.
Something special had happened insider Jennifer. Something inside Jennifer had changed. Jennifer’s heart was so full of joy and gladness that she sang praises to God quietly on her hospital bed. And by midnight – a time she normally couldn’t sleep and she stayed awake crying, she was singing songs of praise and worship to God and later on she slept like a baby without a care in the world. She had laid all her burdens at the feet of Jesus. The next day, the Pastor along with friends from church came to visit her. The Pastor said a prayer of faith for Jennifer and instantaneously she was healed. Everybody rejoiced and praised God. The Pastor used that opportunity to pray for a lot of patients in the hospital. Even the nurses pleaded with him to go to all the wards and pray for the sick. They were seeing results right before their eyes and no one could deny that the presence of God was in the place. The local news media should have covered it but certain evil people in certain places had long placed restrictions to prevent the televising of such things on local news networks.
Anyway, that day was a glorious day for everyone especially Jennifer who was kind of responsible for how glorious the day turned out all because she learnt to praise God through her midnight season. Someone also taught her how to map out her income into percentages for spending, charity and investing. And with a friend from church acting as a free financial planner/ advisor, Jennifer was out of debt and flowing in excess after she started investing in Real Estate & Government Bonds. And she did it without working three jobs, just only one.
THE END.