9-10-18<\/p>\n
She was sitting on the curb outside her apartment, the little apartment in the row of several small units on one of the rivers that feed into the Atlantic Ocean in central New Jersey. A hot summer afternoon, yes, and the little apartment has no air conditioning.<\/p>\n
But mainly she was out there, alone \u2013 alone with her thoughts. It was the end of the month; benefits had run out, as had most of the food. <\/p>\n
Actually, as I learned of this story afterward, it was not an unfrequent circumstance. But lately, in scenes like this, Barbara was not really alone; not only with her thoughts. She was praying. And her relatively recent and closer relationship with Jesus led her to pray. Jesus, her new best friend. When the New Life happens, you don\u2019t only pray to God. The Holy Spirit inhabits and inspires your prayers. You pray with<\/em> Jesus, not only to or through Him.<\/p>\n The Lord wants to know the burdens of our hearts, so we no longer feel selfish in asking for basics, big or small. The Word has promised \u2013 the Peace That Passes All Understanding bathes our troubled souls.<\/p>\n As she sat there lifting up those burdens, a neighbor from five doors down walked up. An old Black man named Victor, with a very young son or grandson whose puppy was on a leash, greeted her and said he thought she might like some crabs. Now, Victor lays crab traps outside his place on the river, and all along the coastline, selling Blueclaws to shops and restaurants. Blue crabs, common up and down the Atlantic coast and mostly identified with Chesapeake Bay, are interesting creatures with bright azure claws, back fins that act as paddles \u2013 they actually swim \u2013 and the sweetest, most tender meat you can imagine. <\/p>\n Many of my summer afternoons, on Jersey Shore childhood vacations, were spent in rowboats with my dad, my uncle Gus, and cousin Tommy, in Barnegat Bay. Fastening clunky wire traps with bait, usually mossbunker heads, we would lower the traps and pull them up almost immediately, with one or two crabs in each, all afternoon. On good days we would have several bushel baskets of those clacking crabs. In the evening our grandmothers, moms, and sisters would boil up innumerable crabs \u2013 no longer blue but scarlet red \u2013 to be turned out onto “tablecloths” of cut brown paper bags; cracking, poking, picking that sweet meat from every small corner and tip.<\/p>\n This history would explain why Barbara responded to Victor\u2019s offer with a shout that could be heard across the Atlantic, maybe as far as to Sheepshead Bay in Brooklyn: \u201cCRABS??? Wow! Yes! THANK YOU!!!\u201d <\/p>\n At that moment, the offer of a pack of saltines would have been gratefully met. But an abundance of fresh crabs \u2013 especially in these latter days when they are more delicacies in seafood markets and menus than results of lazy, sunburned afternoons in rowboats \u2013 seemed like a miracle. <\/p>\n When I heard the story, I knew it was a miracle on several levels. For Barbara \u2013 for anyone \u2013 to immediately thank God and give Him the glory, is often a miracle in itself, particularly when that spiritual attitude had not been traditional. But, more, she felt that prayer<\/em> was answered. She acknowledged that God\u2019s blessings often reflect his holy timing<\/em>; being still and waiting, as the Bible says.<\/p>\n Further, the attitude of thanksgiving is essential. Was Victor an angel, sent with his kid and basket of crabs? Maybe, but she did know him from the neighborhood. The important thing is, as Christians, that when Christ visits His brothers and sisters, it is as He lives in the hearts<\/em> of the mercy-givers. <\/p>\n Satan knows this. He hates us according to the amount of Jesus we open to Him in our hearts. <\/p>\n So when someone says, \u201cthat wasn\u2019t Jesus \u2013 that was only a neighbor being nice,\u201d the truth is, for instance in this story, that\u2019s Jesus acting through our neighbors and us, to each other.<\/em><\/p>\n It\u2019s what Christians do. <\/p>\n Questions about timing\u2026 about further prayers\u2019 further effects\u2026 about the temptation to see prayers as magic wands\u2026 to wonder why God sometimes seems to say No\u2026<\/p>\n These are still\u2026 questions. God did not promise that we would avoid the Valley of the Shadow; only that He would be with us. So there are, and continue to be, questions, challenges, and problems in life. But God answers prayer in His time and in His way. And He honors faith, and faithfulness (two different things) \u2013 and He will bless the grateful heart.<\/p>\n How many people, sitting on the curb like Barbara was that afternoon, would have \u201cthanked her lucky stars,\u201d shaken Victor\u2019s hand, and told her friends about an amazing \u201ccoincidence\u201d that just happened? I can tell you: a lot of people.<\/p>\n