God Math

Has anyone ever tried to figure this one out: God takes 1 + 1 and makes 10,000...or 500...or 22. One person doing one little thing with the talent He has given them and it can turn the world upside down. It’s crazy. It makes me smile.

I have this friend named Tammy Rada who God is using to make 1 + 1 equal a lot of change. She heard about a little 5-yr.-old girl named Emily who was just diagnosed with a brain tumor. The tumor is located on the stem of her brain thus an operation to remove it would be out of the question. Treatment possibilities look grim. Meanwhile, the parents are commuting to a special treatment hospital and staying in a hotel they could not afford while awaiting a spot to open at the Ronald McDonald House.

It’s a situation that moves most of us to tears including Tammy but then she moved to action. She acted as God’s hand of care on this earth because it is so true that “All the beautiful sentiments in the world weigh less than a single lovely action.” (James Russell Lowell) She did what she could and that was to let everyone she knew about Emily, asking for them to give what they could to help this hurting family: a gas card, $5, a prayer.

I spread the word about what Tammy was doing to my circle of friends and another dear friend moved into action too. She got mad. Carol Sheahan didn’t want to just accept the grim outlook from the doctors, not until she rallied people to get on their knees and petition God on Emily’s behalf. She spread the word and got people praying and I know God is still using her one act of uniting people to pray to keep them believing for a future of hope for this girl.

It keeps going. It happened again yesterday when I mentioned to my mom, Pat Bradbury, what was happening and without hesitation, she pulled out her purse and pressed some money into my hand, “Buy them a gas card from us too. And we’ll tell everyone at our church to pray.” When we act, we are letting God act through us.

I love seeing God’s hand at work, working out BIG answers to little problems of 1 + 1. I love how He took a few little pieces of fish and bread from a willing kid and fed over 5,000 people. I love how he takes a little piece of faith and moves a mountain. A little talent. One dollar. A single act. One willing heart.
I don’t know what will happen to this sweet girl but I know what isn’t happening: nothing. Something changed because someone cared and didn’t let it stop at a care.

It really doesn’t make sense to me but God takes the little talent or gift we entrust to him and invest it towards eternity in such a way that it would bring down Wall Street if it could be recorded on the charts. That is God math.