I Always Wondered What I'd Do

     I always wondered what I'd do if I saw Andy again. As it turned out, I said, "I thought you looked familiar. You stole our car." Technically, he didn't steal it. He just bought it and didn't pay for it. But because there was a verbal agreement between us, the lack of payment was not police business. Perhaps I should backtrack. Andy was the first of the homeless boys Tracy invited to stay with us. He was 17, had lots of family in the area, and no one who wanted him. His parents had split up and found new significant others who decided Andy and his brother were insignificant, so the parents set their teenage sons adrift in the world. One of conditions for staying in our home was having a job and paying something toward expenses and Andy was not ready for that. So I asked him to contact his mother in New York and see if he could stay there. She eventually sent him bus fare, but later he returned. He left as an overweight teenager and returned as a slender meth addict. Tracy wanted to help him out. Andy needed a vehicle and we had an old Eagle for sale for $1200. We had no intention of taking payments or giving him the title until he gave us some money, but Tracy assumed we would be willing because we knew Andy. He promised to pay $75 a week (from the job it turned out he had lost a couple days earlier). Tracy gave him the title. We didn't see a payment, the Eagle, or Andy again. Until last Saturday.
    We recently had another car for sale. This one in even worse shape than the Eagle and priced accordingly, $300. Reed called from the airport to say a buyer was coming for the Mazda. I was surprised he hadn't warned me the buyer was Andy, or even that they were willing to sell the car to him but, as it turns out, they didn't know either until they saw him in our driveway. Reed and Tracy had little to say while they readied the car. I visited with Andy's girlfriend and her daughters. Andy has four daughters but those were not his. He looked too good to be on meth and he told me daily AA meetings were a condition of seeing his daughters. Much to my own surprise, I gave him a hug before he left and told him I was glad he was doing better. Although I was also glad when I found out he had had two cars stolen from him recently. What I forgot to tell Andy was that I had prayed for him all these years.
     I had just prayed that morning that the dented, transmission impaired Mazda would somehow be a blessing to somebody. Very few people would be desperate enough to consider that particular $300 car a blessing. For hours after he left I kept double checking with God about His bizarre answer to my prayer. One thing is for sure, we were not going to feel bad if the Eagle expired shortly after the sale. I always wondered what I would do if I saw Andy again and was relieved to find out the few words I spoke were kind and that I reflected, in a small way, the God who has faithfully forgiven me. And I was able to see a partial answer to my prayers in Andy's sobriety. The following Saturday, God answered the same question in another, more painful, situation.