Those "God Set Ups"

Over the years, I have come to recognize moments/events that happen in life where it only becomes evident AFTER the fact that God has set the whole thing up for a reason. I experienced such a moment yesterday. It actually began on Saturday evening. I was looking through Facebook marketplace in search of some things we are in need of for our church as we prepare to move into our new home in a few weeks. I saw some chairs listed for sale that I really did not "need" but I thought they might be nice to put in the small breakroom in the new church building. I contacted the seller and asked if I could pick them up after church on Sunday. She told me that she would be at work, but someone else would be there and it would be OK to do so. So, after church and lunch, my wife and I went to pick up the chairs. As we arrived at the house, we saw they were actually having a yard sale. I saw the chairs we were buying and started toward them and a young man asked if I was there for the chairs. I said I was and he told me he would help me load them. I responded that I could get them but he said, "They're pretty heavy." I grabbed a stack of the chairs and for certain, they were heavy. He grabbed hold of the other side and helped me load the chairs. While we were doing that, my wife spotted something else and asked me if I thought it might work in the church nursery, and we purchased that as well. While I was loading the rest of the stuff, this young man, who had heard that we were from a church, asked my wife if would would be in prayer for his son and explained that he had a very rare condition known as Krabbe Disease. She told him we'd be praying and she joined me in the van. 

As my wife began telling me about his prayer request and I started backing out, as "luck" would have it, a woman pulled in behind us and parked so that I could not leave. Honestly, I'm thinking, "What are you doing lady!" but again, I didn't know it then, but God was setting me up. I said to the woman that I was sorry, but she was going to need to move her car because she had me blocked in, but that same young man came out and asked me to hold on a minute and he would move his car, allowing me to drive across the yard and exit via a second driveway. As I started to pull through the yard, I felt a tugging in my spirit and stopped and told the man that my wife had just told me about his prayer request and I asked him if he could tell me about his son. His face lit up with pride as he spoke of his son and the battle for his life that they were fighting and how they were trying to defy the odds against this disease. He shared how Jax, his son, who is two and a half was already pushing past the life expectancy that they gave them when he was diagnosed and that they were fighting along with others to raise awareness of this disease and raise funds to help find a cure. The love and strength of this young man just came through his words  as he spoke of Jax and his fight. I promised to be praying and gave him one of my business cards and asked him to keep me in the loop as to how his son was doing. 

As we left, my heart was just breaking and I teared up to the point that I could not even speak. I knew at that moment that this was not just a "chance encounter" but this was indeed, a "God set up" if I had ever seen one before.  By the time we arrived back at our house, I got on Facebook and saw that this father had already been on our church's page and made a comment about meeting us and how he'd keep us as informed as he could about Jax. I wanted to share this so that others might become aware of Krabbe Disease and to join us in prayer for Jax and his family. I don't know what the future holds, but I do not believe that this was purposed to be a one-time meeting for us and I'm asking Jesus to show me how he would have me and The Quest to be involved in this fight.