An Unexpected Gift

I go walking with a very dear friend of mine once a month. Last month when we walked, he was rather down, which is very abnormal for him. After we walked, I sent him an email and told him that if he would like me to, and if we could find a quiet place away from the mainstream, I might sing to him some of the hymns that God has used to lift my heart and put a smile on my face. He responded that, yes, he would like that.

So this past Tuesday we went for our February walk. It was too cold to walk outside, so we went walking in Riverpark Square and through the skywalk system. I brought the words to several hymns with me, and we looked for a quiet place off the beaten path. But we didn't see anything anywhere that looked like it would work.

He's an inspector, so he knows the buildings in Spokane better than most, and he knew of a lobby area that is rarely visited. We went there by taking a elevator that I didn't even know was there, but when we got to the lobby, someone was mopping the floor. So my friend suggested that we take the elevator to the top floor and see what that looked like. It ended up being an entryway to a level of condos on the top floor of one of the downtown buildings. It was a small area, probably about 15X30 ft.

I've never sung for anyone, by myself and unaccompanied, before, except my own family. So I told him I was going to close my eyes and pretend he wasn't there, and I gave him the words to follow along with. I had barely sung 3 words when the elevator door chimed, and my eyes snapped open and I put my hand over my mouth, quite embarassed.

It ended up being the same fellow who had been mopping the floor in the area we'd originally intended to use. He asked us if we were waiting for someone, and my friend said, "No, we were just looking for a quite place to read something." The kind man offered to let us in to a model unit condo that happened to be just down the hall from where we were, but even if we had known it was there, we couldn't have gotten to it because the hall was sealed by a locked door. He opened the door for us, and opened the door to the model unit. It was empty, except for a table in the great room where consultations must take place with people who are looking to buy condos in that building.

We thanked him extravagantly, and I was able to sing the hymns for my friend in a beautiful room full of windows and vaulted ceilings, with incredible acoustics. My friend cried, and we prayed together, and it was such an incredible, beautiful, uplifting time. Like a cool fresh green oasis in the middle of a scorching desert. I know that it was God's gift to both of us that day. I've never experienced anything quite like it.