Two Easters
Page 6
confessed. He sincerely asked Betty to forgive him for everything that he had done. Leaning against that dirty car, the couple embraced and cried.
"Thank you, Jesus, thank you Jesus," Betty repeated over and over in the softest of voices.
"Jesus," Tom interjected, "I've been hearing about Jesus for 24 hours. I didn't know why I walked out on everything in Fort Lauderdale until I was on the way home. Now I know why; Jesus told me to come home. It wasn't a real voice, it was just something that told me what was right."
"It wasn't something, honey. It was someone and His name is Jesus."
"That's what I mean, but I just can't say it right," Tom amended. "Anyway, about three or four A.M. today, just before I crossed the Tennessee line, a preacher came on the radio who really made sense to me. Did I tell you I listened to Christian radio all the way home? That preacher, from Tennessee, sounded like he was talking just to me. Betty, I prayed to receive Christ. Do you know what I mean?"
Betty's heart was jumping inside her chest. Her husband was listening to the Lord! Her foremost prayer request had been answered!
Tom and Betty moved all the items from his car into their basement apartment. He took a shower and fell asleep. Tom would sleep until almost noon the next day.
Back in Fort Lauderdale, Pastor and Mrs. Tom Grant waited for their flight home to be called. "Honey, it's in God's hands," Tom assured his wife. "The Lord knows what he's doing. We can't beat ourselves up any longer. We were right where He wanted us to be. Tom leaving that non-covenant relationship, for whatever reason, is a step in the right direction."
Getting out of the chair, Julie walked toward the bank of airport pay phones, to check for messages at home before their flight.
"You have one message. Yesterday at 8:22 PM"
"Julie," an excited voice exclaimed, "Tom came home. He was sitting in the driveway when I came home from work. He prayed to receive Christ on the way home, listening to the radio. Tom's asleep in the basement right now. I am thrilled! Talk to you when you get home. By the way, disregard a message that I left for you yesterday. Love you guys, bye."
Julie walked quickly back to the waiting area. "Tom," she said in an excited voice, "You won't believe this . . ."
"Oh, yes I will," he interrupted, "God is not limited."
The Lord had three surprises in store for Tom Allison that following weekend. He and Betty were going to visit the Grants for the weekend and be in their church on Sunday. They had to be back by Sunday evening, when Bud and Norma, the owners of the flower shop where Betty worked, had invited them over to discuss "something important."
Just as Tom and Betty were about to get in the car on Saturday morning, the postman delivered an Express Mail envelope to Tom. The return address indicated that it was from Sandy in Fort Lauderdale. Inside Tom found a short handwritten note attached to a one page legal document.
"Congratulations," the note began, "We are no longer married. Two weeks ago, when you were signing forms to go on my insurance, you also signed a petition for annulment of marriage. I knew that you still loved your wife and someday were going to go back to her. The day you left, my attorney walked the petition through and found a judge to sign it. Our marriage is invalid. The joke is on you! Sandy."
Tom and Betty rejoiced all the way to Indiana. The Lord had worked another miracle in their restoration process. There was now no obstacle to their remarriage.
The second surprise for Tom came when he officially met Pastor and Mrs. Grant. He had no idea that he had ever seen them before. When the car pulled in and the Grants came out to meet them, Tom thought, "He looks familiar. Looks like somebody I met in Lauderdale."
The first words from Pastor Grant's mouth provided the answer, "Hi Tom, glad to meet you. Paper or plastic bags?"
"You!" Tom stammered, "You're the guy. . . the guy . . with the orange juice . . the preacher . . . who . . . who . . . at the . . . conference . . . Lauderdale? How? What?!!" By then, the Grants, along with Betty, were laughing with a stuttering Tom.
"Only God can arrange things like us meeting," Pastor Grant replied. During that weekend, that entire meeting at Southport was explained to an amazed Tom.
The two couples spent all Saturday afternoon and evening talking and praying. Plans were made for Pastor and Mrs. Grant to travel to Cincinnati on the following Saturday to re-unite Tom and Betty in marriage.
After a blessed morning worship service, Tom and Betty said good-bye to their friends and headed home to Cincinnati. On the way, Tom asked, "Wonder what Bud and Norma have to tell us that is so important?"
"I'm afraid I know," Betty replied. "Bud's health isn't good and several florists chains have called. I suspect they are selling out."
"Not good," Tom said while shaking his head from side to side. "I don't have a job yet, and you are about to be fired. God needs to come through for us again on this one. Oh well," he joked, "wonder if Kroger's is hiring bag boys? I have experience."
"Even if they are, I know that God has a task for you besides sacking groceries."
In only a few hours, Tom and Betty sat in Bud and Norma's living room and learned the fate of her employment at Beautiful Flowers by Bud. Bud's opening comment in that conversation was strange, as he inquired, "Tom, do you know anything about arranging flowers?"
"Let me explain," Norma interjected, "It's a long story and not very good news, I'm afraid."
"Kroger's, get my apron ready," Tom thought. He had heard from Betty how the big chains snap up small, independent flower shops. They consolidate their operation and many of the employees are terminated.
"The shop has provided us with a good living," Norma continued, but the time has come for us to make some changes in our lives. I'm sorry to tell you that Bud has been diagnosed with cancer. He is only expected to live a few months."
"Let's go for a drive," Bud suggested, "That's the best way to tell the rest of the story." Soon, all four people were in the Cordell's automobile, headed somewhere.
Tom and Betty sat in the back seat tightly clutching hands. The only time that Betty had been in that car was a few weeks ago when she had gone to see the Grant's for Easter. Tears welled up in her eyes as she thought about of God's goodness to her family since that fateful weekend when she first took a stand with God for restoration of her marriage. But why was the Lord making her firing so painful?
In a few minutes, Norma stopped the car in front of Beautiful Flowers by Bud. "See anything different?" she inquired. Fragile Bud had turned around in the seat to watch the reaction.
That is when Betty saw it! The sign that once read Beautiful Flowers by Bud, now freshly painted, proclaimed Beautiful Flowers by Betty.
"What! . . . what does it mean . . . I can't! . . . I don't . . . What does that mean? Didn't you sell out to a chain? That's what we thought."
"No honey," Bud spoke, "We did not sell out to a chain. That shop has provided for Norma and me to live comfortably for the rest of our lives. Had we sold it, since we have no children, it would have only meant money for our nieces and nephews to fight over when we are gone. We are giving you guys our business."
"We can't think of anyone better to continue on what we have invested our lives into," Betty affirmed. "There is only one stipulation. You cannot sell out to any of the chains that have been after us. We think too much of our customers to hand them over to a corporation. Our people have been too good to us down through the years."
"Let's go home," said Bud. "I am tired and I know that you guys must have questions."
That evening, while drinking coffee and discussing the flower shop, Bud asked a question that was off the subject. "Betty, Norma and I have watched you closely during these past months and we admired you. Now that I am about to die, how can I get that same happiness that you had when your marriage was dying?"
That night, two old retiring florists were born into the Kingdom of God. "Just as you have given us a gift of the shop that we do not deserve and could never pay
for ourselves, God has given us the gift of His only son, Jesus. He died on the cross to pay for our sins. Just as we can receive or reject your gift of the shop, you can receive or reject God's priceless gift of eternal life."
"I've rejected God all my life," Bud cried. "Will He still have me in my last days?"
"Absolutely!"
Later that night during the drive home, Tom and Betty, still suffering from shock, talked about all that had happened in their lives in the past few months. "Easter was the day that things turned around for me. That's the day I took a stand, refusing to allow the enemy to have you.
"Did you know that Easter was the same day that I met what's-her-name in Florida?"
"We really did have two Easters," Betty commented. "Looking back, I can see the hand of God in everything that has happened to bring you home to me and to the Lord."
The following day, Tom spent his first day at the flower shop and he loved it. He was a natural for the florist business. "Dealing with those wholesalers is about like dealing with the stock market," he joked.
Later that week, both couples spent many hours on flowers for a