From: Billy Ed Willcox 
 
                            A Blessing

 A woman was getting a pie ready to put into the oven when the
 phone rang.  It was the school nurse, her son had come down with
 a high fever and would  she come and take him home?  The mother
 calculated how long it would take to drive to school and back,
 and how long the pie should bake, and concluded there was enough
 time.  Popping  the pie in the oven, she left for school.  When
 she arrived, her son's fever was worse and the nurse urged her
 to take him to the doctor.

 Seeing her son like that -- his face flushed, his body trembling
 and dripping with perspiration -- frayed her, and she drove to
 the clinic as fast as she dared.  She was frayed a bit more
 waiting for the doctor to emerge from the examining room, which
 he was doing now, walking toward her with a slip of paper in his
 hand.

 "Get him to bed," he told her, handing her the prescription,
 "and start him on this right away."

  By the time she got the boy home and in bed and headed out again
  for the shopping mall, she was not only frayed, but frazzled and
  frantic as well. She had forgotten about the pie in the oven.  At
 the mall she found a pharmacy, got the prescription filled and
 rushed back to the car . . .

  . . . Which was locked.

 Yes, there were her keys, hanging in the ignition switch, locked
 inside the car.  She ran back into the mall, found a phone and
 called home.  When her son finally answered, she blurted out,
 "I've locked the keys inside the car!" The boy was barely able to
 speak.  In a hoarse voice he whispered, "Get a wire coat hanger,
 Mom. You can get in with that."  The phone went dead.

 She began searching the mall for a wire coat hanger -- which
 turned but not to be easy.  Wooden hangers and plastic hangers
 were there in abundance, but  shops didn't use wire hangers
 anymore. After combing through a dozen stores,  she found one
 that was behind the times just enough to use wire hangers.

 Hurrying out of the mall, she allowed herself a smile of relief.
 As she was about to step off the curb, she halted.  She stared at
 the wire coat hanger.  "I don't know what to do with this!"

 Then she remembered the pie in the oven.  All the frustrations
 of the past hour collapsed on her and she began crying.  Then she
 prayed, "Dear Lord, my boy is sick and he needs this medicine and
 my pie is in the oven and the keys are locked in the car and
 Lord, I don't know what to do with this coat hanger.  Dear Lord,
 send somebody who does know what do with it and I really
 need that person NOW, Lord.  Amen."

 She was wiping her eyes when a beat-up older car pulled up to the
 curb and stopped in front of her. A young man, twentyish-looking,
 in a T-shirt and ragged jeans, got out.  The first thing she
 noticed about him was the long, stringy hair, and then the beard
 that hid everything south of his nose.  He was coming her way.
 When he drew near she stepped in front of him and held out the
 wire coat hanger.  "Young man," she said, "do you know how to get
 into a locked car with one of these?"

 He gaped at her for a moment, then plucked the hanger from her
 hand.  "Where's the car?"

  Telling the story, she said she had never seen anything like it
 -- it was simply amazing how easily he got into her car.  A quick
 look at the door and window, a couple of twists of the coat
 hanger and bam! Just like that, the door was open!

 When she saw the door open, she threw her arms around him. "Oh,"
 she said, "the Lord sent you! You're such a good boy.  You must
 be a Christian!"

 He stepped back and said, "No ma'am, I'm not a Christian, and
 I'm not a good boy.  I just got out of prison yesterday."

 She jumped at him and she hugged him again - fiercely.  "Praise
 the Lord!" she cried.  "He sent me a professional!"

    Source: geocities.com/heartland/oaks/5346/Literature

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