Reprint

FINDING GOD BETWEEN A ROCK & A HARD PLACE:
Stories of GRATITUDE & GRACE

compiled by Lil Copan & Elisa Fryling
Harold Shaw Publishers, Wheaton, IL, 1999. pp 169-171.

Coffee Shop Miracle

BY MARILYN P. MASON

WHEN Mary (age 10), David (age 9), and Gerard Mason (age 7) returned to America in June of 1973, following their dad's death in Africa (where the family had been involved in medical missions work), they had a strange request. They wanted to see Johnny Cash, their dad's favorite singer.

Early that fall, I took them to see him appear at a theater in Nanuet, New York, as part of a short family vacation. After the show, instead of grins, I noted tears. Why? They didn't get to shake his hand!

I glibly said something like, "If God had wanted you to meet him, he would have worked it out, ... and he still could." I guess in my own way I was saying, "Give me a break, kids. I did everything I could to please you." Or, maybe I was trying to let them down gently. Whatever, as kids often do, they took me seriously and literally. They prayed all the way back to the hotel that God would work it out.

The next morning, while Mary, Davy, and Gerry were wading and swimming in the pool, I went to the coffee shop overlooking the pool area to figure out how to handle their disappointment when they would realize that their prayer was not going to be answered.

Had I not spent hours the evening before telephoning New York City hotels trying to locate Johnny Cash -- to no avail? As if any hotel would reveal the presence of a celebrity to a complete stranger? What won't a parent do to bring a smile to a child's face -- let alone three children in the midst of bereavement?

I soon found out. Only the parent in this case was our heavenly Father. Once I stopped staring into the cup of coffee and looked around my immediate surroundings, I saw Johnny Cash's manager and accompanists right there in the coffee shop, seated at a nearby table. Who couldn't recognize Carl Perkins after watching him perform "Blue Suede Shoes" the night before?

I knew what I had to do. I had to muster up the courage, be willing to appear to be a "groupy," and walk over to their table to explain the situation to them. I did, and the men were touched by the story. Together, we made arrangements for the kids to be introduced to Johnny that night. Of all things, he was planning to come to our hotel to eat supper anyway!

Not only did the kids get to shake his hand, but Johnny talked with them for about fifteen minutes, and we got to eat supper at a small table right next to Johnny's!

To be sure, this was no life-or-death issue, but apparently God delighted in answering the kids' believing prayer -- and in demonstrating to me what he says in Psalm 34:10: Those of us who reverence the Lord will never lack any good thing.

Koutwazi / Courtesy of The Creole Clearinghouse