Blessed Are Those

It was another early Friday morning with the faithful few gathered together in our separate pews. Each week a band from my church gets together to catch up with our lives and hearts and then pray. On this particular day, Brother James shared about running into an old friend and commented that the Lord puts us in places to intersect with people on purpose. It struck me because the night before I had had my own intersection with a peer from the past, and I wondered even more what God could be purposing it for. Little did I know, I was about to discover an invaluable deposit through an unlikely bond again.

The things in our lives that seem misfortunes, may be in our favor. For me, it was the reckoning decision of what to do with Sam, my faithful SUV: trade him or fix him. My dad’s response to any vehicle hiccup is to get something new. One of the main differences between me and him is our bank accounts. They don’t contain the same number of commas. He had a vision for me that as far as my bank account was concerned, it could not support. I was fine with my daddy’s vision, as long as he had the provision for what he wanted for me. Three years ago, my transition from Cam Cam (my Camry) to Louie (the Rogue that went rogue on me in two days) to Sam had caused quite a strain on his and my relationship. This time around, I think we were both determined to do something different.

And my dad led the way. He was on the phone with a dealership trying to find his baby girl the thing she wanted. Just that simple act made me feel covered and loved. A girlfriend and I were speaking recently that though we like the peace of our single lives with kids, there is something to be said of having a good husband. To not have to figure it all out and make all the decisions on our own. Could someone do this for us, please!?! So, to have my dad take on the biblical role of a father to an uncovered daughter meant more than he could know. 

My dad had done the searching, talking, and connecting and told me where to go, so there I went. It was already past dusk as I was leaving work from a survivor celebration when I waltzed into this dealership about an hour and a half before it closed. As I uncertainly approached the sales side of the house, I happened upon a young man who was sitting. When he saw me, he said “I know you.” He didn’t know where he knew me from, but just that I was uncannily familiar to him. I looked at him and couldn’t place him either so we proceeded to business – Show me the cars! We had a good time on the lot and through town, me test-driving everything my voluminous eyes found captivating. A girl could dream, right? I had no budget and no plan. I was just there with an expectant heart that something would work out, as one of the survivors I had walked with for 3.5 years had powerfully prayed earlier that day. She prayed that the gift of a new car would come to me with no debt and no sorrow. That the Lord owned it all, so all my dad owns belongs to the Lord. She declared that to sow into me was to sow into good ground. I stood on that prayer, especially as I jumped into that relatively new 4Runner with all the works.

Probably into road trip number 2 or 3, it finally hit us both. My sales agent and I had attended the same alma mater. He was a fresh-meat freshman, as I was headed out the door, a senior. As I had not intersected with him much during my final undergraduate year, I was caught off guard by this second crossroad that would soon lead me to tears. That night I shared with him a piece of my story through our church podcast to which I had found the courage to say yes to do. I didn’t know he would prepare himself for work the next morning while listening to it, but the seeds of my words would sprout into a deposit he’d make into me later that day.

So that morning, after prayer with the faithful few, I rushed home to ready myself for our daily work devotion and prayer. My ministry team and I had been reading through Luke and were somewhere between chapters 9 and 10 when our Second in Command suggested we revisit the birth of Christ in chapter 2. I had been captivated for over a week by Mary’s prayer and thought that maybe it was in that chapter, but he said that it was actually in Luke 1. With his heart on expecting Yeshua, he agreed we should go there instead.  He divided the chapter into three parts, with me leading the way and getting to read that prayer again.

Fast forward to when me and my former schoolmate, Ryan were in the throes of communication over the car situation. The night prior, I had found one I liked. And by the time I got home, a name came to me: Annabelle. When I looked up the meaning, it had seemed perfect: favored grace. Its roots, Anna means favored grace and Belle means beauty. I thought, if this purchase caused my earthly father to pray more earnestly to our Heavenly Father to send me a suitable mate to get me off his payroll, so be it. With my dad’s excellent negotiation and sales skills, I’m confident he’ll be speech-ready to inform the young man: “When I gift you my daughter, understand she comes with favor, grace, and beauty. Times two. You get her and Annabelle. Now keep them in the condition I gave them to you or make them better.” I was oh too hopeful for it all when the dream seemed as if it were slipping away.

My father and I were at an impasse. He wasn’t moving and neither was I. It may have seemed like a small and necessary sacrifice to my dad, but to me, it was everything – the little things I could do with the little money I had for the people the Lord had placed along my path. I still wanted a cushion to sow into others without feeling the stress and strain of making ends meet just to get from point A to B. I just needed a vehicle that moved. And I was okay with that vehicle still being Sam. Before getting Sam, I was in a state a friend would call “You’re car-less. You’re jobless. And you’re homeless.” And it was kinda true. But even with all the less, I had much. I had Yahweh. I had peace. I had provisions for all that I needed. And whatever the Lord wanted my provision to look like today, I trusted Him with it.

As I grappled with the thought of letting Annabelle go, I was so unprepared for the words Ryan would share next that would rock my little world. Reflecting on my testimony video he had watched that morning, he said, “Your mercy is what makes you blessed.” And it was those words that made me remember that season of “less.” And the ones prior where it seemed much had been stripped from me. Yet, even then, I still felt like I possessed everything because I still had Him. I still had Yahweh. 

I shared with Ryan Mary’s prayer and how his words to me reminded me of hers:

“‘My soul glorifies the Lord and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for he has been mindful of the humble state of his servant. From now on all generations will call me blessed, for the Mighty One has done great things for me— holy is his name. His mercy extends to those who fear him, from generation to generation. He has performed mighty deeds with his arm; he has scattered those who are proud in their inmost thoughts. He has brought down rulers from their thrones but has lifted up the humble. He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty. He has helped his servant Israel, remembering to be merciful to Abraham and his descendants forever, just as he promised our ancestors.’” Luke 1:46-55 NIV

As the words “mercy” and “blessed” echoed in my ear, I thought of the Beatitudes and shared that with Ryan too:

““Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called children of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. “Blessed are you when people insult you, persecute you and falsely say all kinds of evil against you because of me. Rejoice and be glad, because great is your reward in heaven, for in the same way they persecuted the prophets who were before you.” Matthew 5:3-12 NIV

Unexpectedly, a flood of emotions and tears sprang forth. Ryan had said what made me blessed was my mercifulness. At that point, it didn’t matter if I got a new car. If I had the home or the husband or the home goods and possessions. The greatest thing I could possess was the Spirit of my God. His character, His nature, His fruit. I was rich and blessed, well beyond what this world could define and offer me. I told Ryan that if the whole point of the Sam conundrum was to reconnect with him for him to deposit those words into me, it had been worth it. I needed to see God seeing me again, and He did it through the eyes of this man.

But that wasn’t all nor the end of the story. Through a persistent salesman, he made an offer my dad and I could say yes to. And I got a new ride – like a never owned, 2025 ride. It took me a day to figure out what to name him, but I think that’s because I wanted his name to declare something about my God every time I spoke it. And that’s what it does. I named him Banner because the Lord’s banner over me has been “I will provide for you.” And He does, exceedingly and abundantly. He favors me and showers me with His grace. He fills me with good things. I am the “Blessed Are Those.”