Last June while I was home I decided I needed to get rid of some of my stuff and free up more storage space for my parents. J A cousin referred me to a flea market about 30 minutes from home where you can rent two tables for $20 and sell to your heart’s content! So Lyli and I drove down one Sunday with all our wares: some kettles, old SCUBA gear, and a few items of furniture from my college apartment, and several boxes of books.
Amid the books I noticed I had an extra copy of The Great Controversy, and I sent up a quick prayer that that book would not come home with me.
God, please send a buyer for that book who will actually read it!
Lyli and I both prayed that God would bless our market venture not only financially, but spiritually. The venue proved to be well worth the $20 on both accounts! In a couple of hours we had sold over half of our stuff, and every buyer took a free GLOW tract along with their purchase. The sun was quite hot by this time, however, and the stream of shoppers began to diminish in both quantity and zeal, and there were still three items I really wanted to sell before we had to leave at noon: my desk, a small table and The Great Controversy. So we bowed our heads again and asked God to send buyers for the furniture and the book.
About this time a young Hispanic fellow began searching through my books, picking up first one, and then another.
“How much are your books?” he asked.
“Well, it depends! I have books from $1 all the way up to $15” I responded. “Do you read much?”
“Oh yeah, I love to read!” He continued browsing, and suddenly I noticed that he was looking at The Great Controversy! I thought this must be my cue. Lyli thought so too, and while I talked, she prayed.
“That is an excellent book!” I encouraged. “It’s one of my all-time favorites! I would never sell it except I have more than one copy!”
“Really? What’s it about?” With that invitation, I launched into a sales pitch for the book that I learned years ago while working the streets of the greater Fresno area. Yet for all my eloquence, the young man put down the book and continued to look at some others. Lyli kept praying, and I kept talking. After a gander at a few other titles, the man made his decision. Seizing The Great Controversy he said, “I’ll take this one. How much?”
“Good choice!” I affirmed, and offered him a price he couldn’t refuse.
“I look forward to reading it!” he said.
Someday I expect I will hear the rest of that story: hopefully when he drops by to visit me in the hanging gardens around my tree-house cottage outside the New Jerusalem! J