Do You Hear Him?

My family recently went to New York City on vacation. Although I had visited NYC on 3 or 4 previous occasions, Yvonne, Aaron, nor my mother-in-law had ever visited; so needless to say, I was excited for them to experience the Big Apple for the first time.

I was equally excited due in part we had made arrangements to stay in Lower Manhattan – enabling us to visit Wall Street, Battery Park and of course Ground Zero.

On the website for the hotel where we planned to stay, it described the closeness in proximity to Ground Zero and other landmarks of interest….I had no clue….the Hotel was DIRECTLY across the street from Ground Zero!

Upon our arrival to the Millennium Hilton, it was so surreal to have seen the twin towers once upon a time – and now seeing onlookers galore looking through a fenced-in four-story gaping hole covering approximately 2 city blocks….wow.

Once we were settled in our room, we began to map out our week; although I had made an itinerary weeks prior…lol. I of course had to remind Yvonne and my mother-in-law of the frequent purse snatches that occur - instructing them how to hold their purses as we journeyed about. Once we were on our way, I wish you could have seen their eyes as we walked the streets of NYC and every, I mean every female that passed, was clutching their purses as I had described. The light bulb definitely turned on brightly at that point!

Although very hot and humid, we absolutely had a great time! We visited Harlem, Madison Avenue, Central Park, Grand Central Station, Rockefeller Plaza – observatory, Century 21, SoHo, Chinatown, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater, took in a Broadway Show (The Color Purple) and of course visited on numerous occasions, Times Square.

All the while, we realized we were out of our normal element, so during the entire trip there was much prayer for our safety….and I have to say, the Lord kept his hedge of protection around us!

One evening, which would make our third visit, Yvonne and I decided to visit Times Square in the evening to get a true picture of what it was like, so we took the subway uptown (another first). We made the interesting subway ride to our destination at about 9:00 pm. We walked about moving in and out of various shops, eateries, etc. The place was an absolute madhouse for what we thought was supposed to be a slow evening. It reminded me of the familiar scenes of the New Year’s Ball drop – it was that packed!

As we were walking, Yvonne said “If it gets too late, I don’t know if I feel comfortable riding the subway back to the hotel”. I replied, “I think we will be okay”. We were hesitant in taking a cab because the cab rides before were less than desirable, nasty, stinky, and the drivers drove crazily. Although I had made the statement, “we will be okay” I immediately began to pray. I asked the Lord to protect us, and if it is not safe to ride the subway back to the hotel, I asked the Lord to show me a sign.

It was a little bit past the hour of 11:00 pm, hot and tired, we both decided to call it a night. As we were walking towards the 42nd street subway stop I noticed a lady sitting on a store-front ledge approximately 30 feet passed the stairway we needed to take underground to catch the subway. The lady ever-so-slightly nodded her head and from across the street a man with a cup in is hand appeared, coming towards us, the lady nodded again, and another man from the same side of the street we were on appeared walking towards us…..this was the sign….all of this seemed to have developed in slow motion, in order for me to see it happen….the setup was happening….if we would have taken those stairs underground, who knows what would have happened….Yvonne and I were literally at the top of the stairs leading to the underground subway….I snapped my fingers – as a gesture of forgetting something – and I said aloud, “dog gone it, I forgot it”, immediately taking Yvonne’s arm we turned and moved the opposite direction towards traffic – as we did this, the two men vanished as quickly as they appeared. I motioned for a cab at the corner, and instantaneously, our chariot arrived (smile) a brand new Toyota Van with paper plates on it - cut across two lanes of traffic and took me and my queen back to our hotel. Did I mention the driver was the nicest person we had met in NYC the entire week, and that he actually drove the speed limit……..God is so good!!

Don’t Just Keep the Faith, Live it

There are lots and lots of things going on in the world, and even much closer to each of us – the question is; how are you / we handling it?

Despite the seemingly ever-changing vicissitudes of life, it is important not to be overcome or consumed by what is happening around you; keep the faith, and more importantly live the faith.

It is your / our choice to either be overcome, or to be an over-comer!

Understand man’s knowledge is finite, while God is infinite

Romans 12:2 KJV