The Unexpected Way of God

Over 25 years.

Yes…that many years had passed since I had darkened the doorstep of attending a writers’ small group.

I’d been publishing fairly regularly, doing my own thing, until about eight years ago when any form of novel writing came to a screeching halt. Or rather publishing full-length novels. I still wrote on occasion, but the books sat in my computer, never seeing the light of day, despite sending out proposals and going to a writer’s conference.

Then last spring I sold a World War II proposal to Barbour Publishing in what was to become Escape from Amsterdam. What had been closed for so long and I thought was buried had risen from the grave.

So, too, did attending a writers’ group. Recently I was invited to one several hours from my home. I knew the leader as we had conversed about some difficult things health-wise and now she had entered into self-publishing—an area I was also interested in. Her invitation to the group intrigued me, and I accepted.

I drove the two and half hours to the writers’ meeting in Maryland. We all met at a market café to talk about God, our writing, and everything in-between. An older lady sat opposite me and shared how life was tough for her, very broken right now, beyond belief. I was sorry to hear this, of course. Everyone had been through a great deal these past few years with the virus issue and other challenges.

But when it came time to share about our personal journeys, her story struck me to the core. She revealed her close friendship with Joni Eareckson Tada at the time of her accident and afterward.

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. You see, when I was a new Christian long ago, I immersed myself in Joni’s story of her paralysis from a diving accident; read her early works, watched the movie about her life and knew about this close friend who helped her in those early days. I asked if she was Diana. And she said yes.

I was totally floored! Joni’s ministry impacted me as a young nurse caring for quadriplegic patients on an orthopedic ward and did something deep within me that burst to life at this meeting. And I think my reaction also meant the world to Diana, that she mattered to others. That in God’s eyes, our interests, our concerns, the things that move us deep within, all matter to Him. And it doesn’t matter the length of time.

Diana’s book is ENOUGH – Learning to Survive and Thrive in Brokenness.

My heart was not broken but rather filled to the brim by the joy of sitting in Diana’s presence and the impact she had on a woman who would develop a ministry that reached so many with disabilities and hurts.

God is still the God of the unexpected. Even if it takes years.