How God answers prayers through Police Officers, Strangers at Walmart, and Country Songs

How does God speak through a police officer, a stranger at Walmart, and a country song?

The podcast was one of my favorites, on knowing God through answered prayers. I had already listened to it by myself, but I needed my girls to hear it now. And I needed the quiet.

We were driving home from spending the day at their Papa's house. The hospice nurse didn’t think he would make it though the night. My prayers that Jesus the Carpenter would meet Papa the Carpenter were difficult to measure. I needed reassurance that our prayers were being answered, in spite of no evidence for it at the time.

My thoughts were interrupted by the flashing lights behind us. Small town speed traps are no joke, and an expired tag ensured I was going to be getting a rather large ticket that night. Our Christmas was already postponed indefinitely.

Presents were an afterthought.

A hefty ticket might send me over the edge.

“How expensive will this be, Momma?”

I remembered the words of Francis Chan in the podcast we had been listening to before being pulled over.

“Just pray.” I answered.

It’s one thing to know that God will answer the prayers of the amazing preacher Francis Chan, it’s another to believe that He will answer your own.

So, when the officer came back mad as a hornet, my faith waivered.

He glared down at me. “Well, I was going to write you a citation, but…my printer broke, so I can’t.”  He followed this statement with a lengthy lecture and all the reasons he would have given me a ticket if he could, to which I replied that the reason he couldn’t write me a ticket was that we had just prayed that he wouldn't (and God had answered our prayer by breaking his printer.) The Officer didn’t see the humor in God's answer to our prayers.

But that night my girls saw firsthand the way God answers even our most ridiculous of prayers.

I had no idea what the next day would bring.

Some will think we’re terrible parents, but our girls are no stranger to death. We’ve wept over kittens caught in engines and baby donkeys born dead. We’ve witnessed miracles of provision through devastating losses. We had hoped the realities of life and death on a farm would prepare them for one day
losing a loved one.

But nothing prepares you for watching a grandparent die.

We stopped at a small town Walmart on the way to their house the next day. Our list was short, comfort foods, paper towels, craft paint (because art is therapy too.)

I rushed though Walmart, silly to waste time on food and art supplies when every moment was one less with their Papa. The last aisle was the paints my girls needed, the paints to distract them with Christmas ornament crafts when things were too much for their hearts to bear.

And then around the corner appeared a woman with a puppy in her arms. An adorable little dog and a friendly face. Puppy therapy at Walmart. I asked her if my girls could pet her puppy.

It was the day before Christmas Eve. She was a stranger shopping for last minute Christmas gifts. No one would have blamed her if she had said no and walked on without a second thought. But, this woman stopped in the middle of her list and handed her little fur ball to my youngest daughter. She then told me the puppy was a Miniature Schnauzer, and that she had a litter of puppies now, and how she was selling them, and they were registered, and blue eyed. And I, just making conversation, told her my daughter was diabetic and asked her if she ever sold them as service dogs. She looked at me with the strangest look on her face and said, “I was thinking I wanted to donate one of this litter to someone who would train it to be their service dog, and I’d like to give it to your daughter…but they won’t be ready until the week after Christmas.”

If you know me, you know I don’t cry often. But I cried that morning in Walmart. I told her we were on our way to be with their Grandpa who was on hospice care, and our Christmas was postponed until he passed away, and that my daughter had wanted a diabetic service dog since she was diagnosed with diabetes years before. And this sweet stranger hugged me and told me God works in mysterious ways, and she just knew this was meant to be.

When we got to the car, my daughter told me she had prayed for a diabetic alert dog two years before, and that God had told her he would give her a puppy, but she would have to wait a while.

Later that night, their Papa passed away.

But that day we knew that God is Love. And He hears and answers our prayers.

For puppies, and for Papa’s.

Sometimes you just have to wait
a while to see them.

Now, for the rest of the story.

For those of you that still doubt that God really cares, and think this must have been just one of those strange coincidences… I later looked up the best diabetic service dog breeds. There were only 3 that were non-shedding, and trainable enough, with a strong sense of smell to detect blood sugar issues in diabetics.

One of the three was a miniature poodle.
(I always hated miniature poodles.)

The other was a Havanese.

And one was…

A Miniature Schnauzer.

Because of course, when God answers prayers, He answers them with exactly what you didn’t even know you needed, exactly when you need it most.

The week after Christmas we went to pick up her new puppy. He’s just as adorable and smart and perfect as my daughter knew he would be.

We stopped at that same small town Walmart for puppy pads and puppy food on the way home.

I stepped outside to hear these lyrics blaring over the loudspeaker…”I wish grandpa’s never died.”

And that’s how God speaks through a police officer, a stranger at Walmart, and a country song.

Because with God answering our prayers, Grandpa’s never die.

"God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son. Anyone who believes in him will not die but will have eternal life." John 3:16

P.S. The woman who donated this puppy didn’t know who I was.
She didn’t know I have a Donkey Dairy or an email list or a blog. She didn’t do it because she wanted the business. But, because I know you all are going to be emailing me wanting to buy one of her puppies now too, I'll just tell you now. Her business page on Facebook is Snyders Schnauzers. And one of her puppies was going to Maryland! So, yes, you too can have your own little ball of joy...if you get on the ball. Because I'm fairly certain they'll all be sold within about 15 minutes of this email...

Happy, Blessed New Year!!
The Traywicks

P.S. I sent this originally as an email and got so many beautiful and heartbreaking replies. I would love to start a prayer list for each of them, and for my prayer warriors to lift them up in prayer! If you need prayers, please feel free to comment on this blog post so they can pray for you as well. God bless you all!