John tells us what happened on this evening.
A young woman was coming toward me, her figure long and slim. Her blond hair lay back in curls from her delicate ears; her eyes were blue as flowers. Her lips and chin had a gentle firmness and in her pale green suit she was like springtime come alive.
I started towards her entirely forgetting to notice that she was not wearing a rose. As I moved, a small provocative smile curved her lips. “Going my way Sailor?” she murmured. Almost uncontrollably I made one step closer to her and then I saw Hollis Maynell. She was standing almost directly behind the girl, a woman well past 40, she had graying hair tucked under a worn hat, she was more than plump, her thick-ankled feet thrust into her low-heeled shoes. The girl in the green suit was walking away quickly. I felt as though I was split in two, so keen was my desire to follow her, and yet so deep was my longing for the woman whose spirit had truly companioned me and upheld my own. And there she stood. Her pale, plump face was gentle and sensible, her gray eyes had a warm and kindly twinkle. I did not hesitate. My finger gripped the small worn leather copy of the book that was to identify me to her. This would not be love, but it would be something precious, something perhaps even better than love, friendship for which I had been and must ever be, grateful. I squared my shoulders and saluted and held out the book to the woman, even though while I spoke I felt choked by the bitterness of my disappointment. “I’m LT John Blanchard, and you must be Miss Maynell. I am so glad you could meet me; may I take you to dinner?” The woman’s face broadened into a tolerant smile. “I don’t know what this is about, son,” she answered, “but the young lady in the green suit who just walk by, she begged me to wear this rose on my coat. And she said if you were to ask me out to dinner, I should tell you that she is waiting for you in the big restaurant across the street. She said that this was some type of test.” (Valentine Story)
Recently I shared this story during a Sunday Morning message. It is not original with me for I received it from another pastor and it can be found on-line by looking up the Valentine Story. Yet when I read it I found myself doing the same thing that our folks did here at Rima Ridge. The moment I finished the story I heard folks across the sanctuary saying “WOW!” What a beautiful story, with a wonderful message? Many times in life, things are not what they seem to be and when it comes to these times we must follow our hearts. For Lt Blanchard the easy thing to do was to follow the pretty lady in the green suit. Who would have known? Miss Maynell, having never seen a picture of him, wouldn’t know who he was and during that time there would have been many different sailors in the station. If the lady in the green suit wasn’t Miss Maynell she wouldn’t have known about his appointed meeting with someone else. But as we see he didn’t do the easy thing but followed his heart, and in the end he was blessed. Had he followed the pretty lady in the green suit he would have missed out and his name with Miss Maynell would have been ruined.
The same goes for us in the everyday life for many times we find ourselves facing the same thing. Follow the world or follow our hearts and glorify God. As we know the Scriptures say in Galatians 5:16-17: “I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh. For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.” There are times when doing the right thing is going to be hard but in the long run, if we do the right thing we will be blessed and our testimony for the Lord will be enhanced and God will be glorified. If we take the easy route we will find ourselves in trouble and our actions will not glorify the Lord.
Let’s be found walking in the Spirit, His Spirit no matter how hard it will be at times.
God Bless.
