This is a true story. It happened not so long ago.

There was a deaf man. He was looking for a job. He decided to go to a seminar. "Maybe I will meet someone there whom I know, or see something, which will lead to a job", he thought.

At the seminar he didn't hear or lip-read a single word. He recognised only one person, but was too shy to go and speak to him.

Drinks and snacks were served in an atrium afterwards. It was a beautiful place, with many floors of offices overlooking it on all sides, filled with trees, plants and a koi pond. Only one person spoke to him, and she quickly moved away when she realised he was deaf. He looked up at the offices, and silently prayed, "Dear God, I am as well qualified and experienced as many of the people who work here, and more so than some of them. Why must I be in this situation? Please let me get a job. Please."

Not long afterwards he got a job. It was in a dingy part of town, but he was overjoyed. He had a job! His heart sang with joy.

Then his company was taken over.

Everyone had to move to the new headquarters. Management decided who would sit where.

One day, shortly after moving, he swiveled around in his comfortable new chair and looked behind him. There, behind and just below him, was the atrium where he had prayed. He realised he was in the exact same corner that he had been looking at when he prayed! Out of the thousands of offices he could have been in, he was in this beautiful one. He could even see the trees, plants and koi pond from where he sat. The early morning sunlight suddenly streamed in, landing on him and no-one else. God was indeed good. God was smiling on him!

How do I know this is a true story? That man was me.

By Alan Mansfield