Mary’s hands and feet were swollen from the long day of work in the factory. Her plight of having a dead-end job for the last twenty years was only magnified by learning recently what her name meant. Bitter. Well, that was fitting. Good thing she had never looked it up before; it might’ve made her, well, bitter for all these years. She thought back to what her mom always told her growing up, “God has a plan for you, Mary.” That was a hard one to believe right now.
She didn’t understand why God had left her in the place she found herself as a 40-something-year-old woman. Didn’t she always tithe to Him and didn’t she always go to church?
There was a time when she tried to sing for Him in the choir. She thought she had a good voice, and she was sure that was what He wanted her to do. But, every time she tried to be involved with the music ministry, something came up. One Christmas, she couldn’t sing in the program because her mother fell ill. Another year at Easter, she was all set to sing her heart out in the pageant when her daughter had to have an emergency appendectomy. Then, the next time she tried, her work schedule changed so that she couldn’t make it to the practices. She had even talked with the music director about possibly singing a solo sometime but that never worked out, either.
When Mary sat in the services on Sundays listening to the choir, she felt envious of those men and woman up on the platform. Oh, how she wanted to sing for God! Instead, she found herself stuck in the nursery every third Sunday of the month. That was the one duty in the church that her life never seemed to get in the way of. She loved the kids, but she felt insignificant. Did babysitting really matter in the scheme of God’s plan? She didn’t think so.
This Sunday, Mary was again in the nursery. One little guy only wanted to be held by the teenage helper, so the other ten toddlers were Mary’s responsibility. She was worn out by the time all the parents came to pick their children up. The last to go was Clinton, a 4-year-old visitor. The sign-in sheet showed his mom as being “Jane Smith.” Mary wondered if that was her real name.
“He was a little shy at first, but after a while he played and did well,” Mary told Jane. “Our lesson was about how Jesus wants us to be fishers of men. Here’s the picture he colored.”
“Thank you,” said the young mother. Then, she diverted her eyes to the floor and mumbled, “I appreciate you watching him for me. This is my first time in church.”
Clinton reached over the counter and gave Mary a hug. Mary’s breath caught in her throat at the simplicity of a child’s love—it always got her. “I hope to see you again, Clinton.”
Jane’s mouth moved slightly into a smile, but desperate sadness stayed in her eyes. “I’m going to try to be here next week,” she said. “Will you be here?”
“Actually, someone else…,” Mary stopped. This mere girl needed a familiar face to return to. “Yes, I’ll be here.”
She watched them walk away and heard Clinton say, “I had fun, Mommy. I really did.” Mary listened as he went on to tell her about the games they played, the story about this man named Jesus and, “then, we had cookies, Mommy. Ya know, the ones with the white stuff in the middle.”
Mary stood in the middle of toys strewn across the floor, residue from happy children. Her own mother’s voice echoed once again in her head, “God has a plan for you, Mary.” God had not assigned her to the wrong job. Of course! Singing wasn’t her only gift from Him. But during her pity party all these years, she thought God only cared about and appreciated the “jobs” that could be on display for all to see. What if everyone sang in the choir and no one was there to watch the babies and toddlers so the parents could listen to the pastor’s message?
Today, Clinton’s mom heard about God’s love for her, maybe for the first time. Mary couldn’t get the look in Jane’s eyes out of her mind. She allowed herself to feel what it looked like the overwhelmed mother must be feeling—the desperation for a break and the longing to know there was hope for the future. Mary thought about her job at the factory, a seemingly menial job that was so mundane it was painful. But, if she didn’t do her part in the manufacturing process, the finished product wouldn’t work. And, what about Sarah, her coworker, who had begun to ask about this Jesus whom Mary claimed as her Savior? Just last week, Sarah asked Mary how Mary had hope and peace, even in difficult times. She was able to tell Sarah about the Lord and His great love for everyone and, yes, she even told Sarah that God had an intentionally designed path for each person’s life.
How long it had taken her to see the obvious! She pictured God saying, “Ah, Mary, My daughter, you got it! You finally realized My plan for you and the perfectness of it. Now, walk forward and enjoy all that I have for you.”
Yes, God had her right where she was supposed to be.
“Make me know Your ways, O LORD; teach me Your paths.” Psalm 25:4, NAS
©2011 Tammy Maseberg All Rights Reserved
