I’ve always loved the book of Nehemiah; probably my 2nd favorite book of the Old Testament.  The opening chapters are riveting as a simple servant somehow procures the powerful King’s permission to leave his post of duty.  Not only that, King Artaxerxes writes letters on Nehemiah’s behalf and sends officials and horsemen from his army, using his influence to help Nehemiah gain safe passage to his homeland and receive materials from his forest for rebuilding the city of Jerusalem.  With all those acts of benevolence, one would think Nehemiah was blackmailing the King and held knowledge of some secret sin he had committed.  But, that wasn’t the source of the favor:

And the king granted them to me because the good hand of my God was on me. (Nehemiah 2:8b)

Nehemiah repeats the assertion later (about God’s Favor being upon them) and his words are actually the means to convince the rather oppressed and beleaguered Israelites to get up and start rebuilding:

Then I said to them, “You see the bad situation we are in, that Jerusalem is desolate and its gates burned by fire. Come, let us rebuild the wall of Jerusalem so that we will no longer be a reproach.”  I told them how the hand of my God had been favorable to me and also about the king’s words which he had spoken to me. Then they said, “Let us arise and build.” So they put their hands to the good work. (Nehemiah 2:17-18)

When our travel agent emailed last week to pass on the news regarding our “Refund Request” to Air France, all I could think of was the story of Nehemiah.  I mean, we already paid Air France about $4,700 for our tickets.  Our money was in their pockets and we only canceled our flights 45 minutes before the flight was to take off.  They had every right to hold onto the money and just express their condolences for the unfortunate experience.

But they didn’t.  Our travel agent wrote to let me know that Air France was refunding $2,700 to us, which means that in the end, we paid just over $2,000 for our luggage (still a steep price to pay, but much better than the $5,600 they were asking for at the ticket counter).  The evidences of the sway of our LORD’s hand are all over.  Who knows if He filled up the flights to Paris and Chad, making Air France more willing to reimburse us, or whether He gave a decision maker pity for us?  Either way, like Nehemiah we wanted to testify about His goodness.  We also want to thank you for joining us in asking Him for favor in this process.

Makes me want to go out and share about the cross today, who knows what other favor he might give?