My nephew Wesley is a freelance journalist and website editor from New South Wales, Australia. He and Alison have two young sons, David and William, and enjoy actively serving at their local place of worship, Inspire Church.
By Wesley Kington
One blistering hot day during the Christmas-New Year holiday season I decided to take my wife and two young sons to the local aquatic centre. Both our children are under two years of age, and for a typical family outing we tend to pack everything into as many bags as we can find. I’ve however always kept my personal possessions – wallet, mobile etc – separately in a trusted backpack in order to have easy access to them when needed. Constantly fretting about losing these possessions I make a point of double-checking they are with me – which I did just as we were heading from the car to the pools.
After enjoying ourselves all morning I went to arrange snacks for the family. I decided to check my mobile for the time and any missed calls. I went for my backpack and my hand rummaged and found the car keys, my wallet and swimming towel. But alas, my phone wasn’t there. I emptied my backpack just to make sure I hadn’t missed anything. But my fears were confirmed.
I informed my wife Alison of the misfortune – at that point thinking it had been most probably stolen – and she suggested we pray for its expeditious return. I would have to say the prayer worked as I was immediately filled with a sense of calm allowing me to become less anxious about the situation. It was then I noticed my backpack had a major tear at its base – allowing a small heavy object to have made a surreptitious exit.
Retracing the steps we had taken within the aquatic centre and finding nothing, I checked with the aquatic centre’s reception area to see whether anyone had picked up the phone – perhaps in the centre itself, the car park, or otherwise – and handed it in. After looking through their ‘lost and found’ collection a staff member asked, “Is this it?” – holding up a familiar-looking object. What a relief to see my phone. But there was one more surprise in store.
Returning to our car, I saw a small note tucked under the windscreen wiper:
“If you lost your phone, we found it and handed it into the swim centre reception”.
Who was this anonymous good Samaritan who I will probably never get to properly thank and who had saved me from having to laboriously start from scratch with a new mobile?
How did this honest person know the correct car to place the note on?
Perhaps the phone had fallen out of my backpack near the vehicle?
Or the kind stranger had picked it up soon after and made a wild assumption to connect the phone with the car?
It’s a miracle I will never know…. but I do know we did the right thing by contacting the Miracle Worker for help.
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