Ask & You Shall Receive

After I met Pastor John I wanted to help so naturally I prayed for some money. A week later, a letter came in the mail from Omaha Nebraska. The letter said I had just inherited $10,000 from my great aunt who had recently died. I called the phone number in the letter and said, “I don’t have a great aunt.” The woman on the phone, JoAnn, said, “Are you Susan Peabody?” “Yes,” I replied. “Is your mother Kathleen Peabody and your grandmother Blanche Coffman Horan?” “Yes,” I replied. “Well,” JoAnn said, “Your grandmother had a sister, and she left an unclaimed insurance policy, and you are the next heir in line to receive the money.”

Right away I got excited and started fantasizing about what I was going to spend the money on. Then JoAnn said, “You are going to have to prove to us that all the other heirs are dead and that you are really Susan Peabody.”

It took me six months to send away for all the death certificates, and my birth certificate, but I did it and mailed all the documents to the Unclaimed Property Division of Omaha, Nebraska. Once again, I started spending the money in my head.

Three months later, I called JoAnn to see why it was taking so long to get the money. She said, “Well, we found another heir. We are in the process of checking her documents. I will get back to you as soon as I can.”

Two months later, I called JoAnn again. She said that the committee in charge of my case had decided that I was the legitimate heir. “Great,” I said.

A month later, I still had not received the money. I called JoAnn and she said that three people had to sign the check and one of them was out sick with Covid. It was at this point that I turned the whole thing over to God. I realized that I could not control all this and just needed to be patient. So, I stopped obsessing and got on with my life.

A week later, the check arrived. I gave most of the money to the orphanage I sponsored in Kenya. My son and all my friends were really upset with me, but I did buy some new clothes and went to Starbucks. This was a real treat for me.

The moral of this story is that we cannot control anything. Everything happens for a reason and only God knows what that reason is. We just need to learn to be patient.