On a
bright summer’s day a few years ago, I arrived at my friend Elaine’s garage
sale to help her out with the crowd who usually turn out to garage sales in her
neighborhood. She said it would take several volunteers as she had accumulated
a lot of items in the last thirty years of her husband Marcus’s running a
Christian Book and Gift store. She was trying to raise some money to keep the
business going and pay for an additional employee since her husband Marcus was
very ill and unable to work. Marcus was the backbone of the store as Elaine had
another job and wasn’t at the store except on Saturdays. We all gathered in a
prayer circle in the living room and joined hands before we opened the garage
for the sale. We asked God to bless the sale with enough money to keep the
business going until Marcus could return to work and of course send his angels
to watch over us all during the sale. We knew it was going to be hectic, but
never could we dreamed just how hectic it would become.
Even
though she had warned me there was a lot to sell, I was shocked at the sight of
her three car garage which was completely packed from front to back with tables
loaded down with items. It was such a tight fit we could not walk between the
tables and closing and opening the garage doors was almost impossible. To add
to the problem, the safety mechanism on her garage door opener was broken, so
the door was a bit dangerous and would not stop if an item came in contact with
it. It had to completely close and you had to hit the button again to get it
back open. This would prove to be a danger beyond our imagining. In order to
make it possible for people to shop, we had to move several tables out on the driveway
and the lawn. And of course move the tables back in at the end of the day.
One
of the volunteers was a neighbor of Elaine’s, who brought her two year old
little girl Marcie with her. Marcie was a rather shy child and would not come
to anyone. She clung to her mommy all day long and was pretty fussy. I tried
several times to get Marcie interested in some of the toys we had at the sale,
but she was not at all interested. It became quite a problem for her mother,
but she valiantly tried to help even though she had her hands full with
Marcie’s constant demands.
As I
was showing a garden statue of Christ to a prospective buyer, Marcie came
running over to us and hugged the statue and began babbling and giggling. It
was the first time all day long that she had done anything but cry and fuss.
The statue was pretty battered up from years of being in Marcus and Elaine’s
storage room, but Marcie seem to love it and spent the rest of the afternoon
talking to it as though it were her best friend. We all got quite a giggle out
of Marcie and her new found plaster friend which we deemed the best cure we had
ever witnessed for the “Terrible Twos” stage of childhood. It certainly made
the rest of the sale much easier since she now was entertaining herself and became
content to let her Mother work undisturbed by crying fits.
On
the second and last day of the sale, Marcie still did not want anything to do
with anyone but her mother and the statue of Christ. She definitely was one of
those children who would not come to strangers no matter how much we tried to
entertain her. Thank goodness no one bought the statue as it was the only thing
that kept her busy and out of harm’s way throughout the two day sale. By
closing time on Saturday we were all elated that the sale had made enough money
to help keep the store running for another few months and they could afford to hire
another employee until Marcus could get back to work. After the sale we moved
all the tables back into the garage and decided to order a pizza to celebrate.
Before
the pizza arrived, I walked back into the garage from the kitchen to retrieve
the one thing I had purchased…the battered statue of Christ. I decided that
perhaps with a little paint it wouldn’t look so bad and would fit nicely in my
small patio garden. Obviously no one who came to the sale wanted it except
Marcie and her Mom said she was sure Marcie would soon forget all about it.
As I
reached down to pick it up, I noticed that we had forgotten to close the garage
doors and it had started to rain. I hit
the button to close them and in that instant I caught a glimpse of little
Marcie as she came running up to the garage from the outside. Ice cold chills
ran through me as I screamed desperately: “No, Marcy Go back!”
Instead
to my horror, Marcie froze directly under the closing door. She had not obeyed
one request from me since I met her and she was not going to start now. She
stubbornly shook her head “no.”
As
the door slowly moved down towards Marcie’s little body, I was in complete shock.
The tables blocked me from getting to her and there was no time to run through
the house and out the back door to snatch her from beneath the closing door. In
anguish I cried out: “Jesus, help me!” and my knees buckled as I shook from
sheer terror and helplessness.
As
my knees hit the concrete in an almost prayer like position, I saw the most
amazing answer to my prayer. Marcie was running towards me. She was so tiny she
sprinted underneath the tables in a flash just before the garage door would
have crushed her to death. She ran towards me with her arms opened wide as
though to run into my embrace. By this time I was crying and shaking so hard, I
could only utter, “Jesus, Jesus, praise you Jesus!” And as I cried out my
praise and wonder, little Marcie ran right past me to hug the battered statue
of Christ. She ran into Jesus arms and He had saved her.
