When God Has A Way, No Other Way Will Work: A new book by Amy Alford

Chapter One

My dad was dying of cancer, my marriage had fallen apart, I had just moved back home to Dallas to take care of my dad and I had started my own photography business. When Sandy and I first began getting to know one another, life was messy. I was not too proud to admit that I was having a hard time holding it all together. I needed spiritual guidance, and I needed it quickly.

Sandy Edmonson became my spiritual mentor and friend in a very short time despite the 45-year age difference between us. She was born before World War II, the greatest generation as they say. I was born in the sixties, when “anything goes” was the new motto and bell bottoms were in. I was starting over in my early thirties, and Sandy was looking back on the horizon of a successful life as a wife, mother and now grandmother and great-grandmother. We came from two completely different worlds, but none of that seemed to matter at the time. I can see that the Lord put Sandy in my life at just the right time and at just the right place. He used her to show me God’s compassion and love for those who are suffering through difficult times. Step by step, He also used her to help me get back on track with my relationship with Him.

Meeting Sandy for the First Time

Shortly after I moved home to Dallas in the fall of 1991, Mom invited me to go with her to Sandy’s Bible study — a class that she had been teaching for the past 27 years. I wasn’t so sure that I wanted to do that. I didn’t know who Sandy was, but I knew I’d already spent too much time alone feeling sad about my marriage and my father, so I agreed. When we walked in, Sandy glanced up and she offered a glowing, contagious smile. She looked so happy to see my mom and me as mom intro- duced us and her warmth welcomed me into the room. I didn’t remember meeting Sandy before, but to my surprise she said that she remembered me from the time I was three years old. It turns out that the Bible class was held in the same church I had attended when I was a child. Sandy recalled seeing me sitting in front of her with my parents. One Sunday, my dad turned his head to whisper to me and Sandy noticed his dark, long eyelashes. She thought to herself, “I hope their little girl has those eyelashes!” Ironically, here was that little girl thirty years later in the same church attending Bible class with Sandy.

Much later after we got to know each other, Sandy told me about a funny discovery she had made. She said, “I was cleaning out a closet and found this old church directory. It’s funny, but our pictures are right next to one another.” When I opened the book and saw our pictures I smiled and said, “Oh, Sandy, we have to put this photo in my book!” She looked rather concerned and exclaimed, “Honey, my hair is so big!” “Don’t worry,” I told her, “so was Mom’s!”

Settling into a nearby comfortable chair, I did not know exactly what to expect from the Bible study. To my surprise, I soon found myself scrambling for pen and paper to write down some of the things I was hearing. Sandy’s words caught my attention, and her message intrigued me. I had heard the Gospel many times before and had been a Christian since I was a child. However, at this time in my life, my heart was so open, and I was ready to listen to whatever God wanted me to know. The Holy Spirit made my eyes and ears willing to see and hear what the Bible had to say through the words that Sandy spoke. What she taught me about God that day and for several months and years after that made me want to know Him on a deeper level. As my friendship with Sandy deepened, so did my relationship with God.

Going through Changes

With all the changes I was going through, sometimes I was so down and upset that I didn’t know what to do or even what to feel. Mom has always been the one I turned to first, but even Mom didn’t have all the answers. That’s when she would say, “Honey, do you want me to call Sandy and see if she has time to see you?” Sandy always made time for me, even in the beginning when she hardly knew me.

I remember driving to Sandy’s house to talk with her one-on-one for the first time. I had been attending the Bible study class for a while, but I had never told her about my life and what I was going through. I was thinking, “How can she make me feel better?” I was so far down in the dumps that all I wanted to do was hit a hundred tennis balls as hard as I could. Anger and frustration, combined with a sense of helplessness, had overtaken my mind, body and soul. How could Sandy help me out of that? Sandy greeted me at the door and welcomed me inside. There was a staircase to the right of the front door.

As I looked up the stairs, I wondered what her children’s rooms were like. Her husband Red had passed away several years before, and all her children were grown and living in their own homes by now.

Quietly, I followed her around the corner to her study. Soft light from a lamp on the desk glowed dimly, but most of the light shown through the window blinds. I sat down on a yellow love seat facing her. She sat next to the window near a bookcase full of books.

As we began to talk about what was bothering me at the time, she never took her eyes off me. There was something warm and comforting about her presence that drew me to share things I had never shared with anyone else. The upheaval in my life seemed such a contrast to her as she patiently listened to my struggles. As I poured out my story in starts and stops, her steady but kind gaze began to unnerve me. I found myself looking around the room and avoiding eye contact while we talked on.

At one point, she reached over to the bookcase and grabbed a well-worn Bible. (You know what they say: “A Bible that is torn up and frayed usually means the owner is not.”) She began reading some verses that paralleled some of what she was telling me. What she said never sounded preachy or as if she were talking down to me. In fact, she didn’t speak on her own authority, as though she was the expert. She gently made suggestions and explained how the Lord desires us to come to Him with our troubles.

During that first day in Sandy’s home, it seemed as though the world had grown quiet and all I heard was Sandy’s sweet, understanding and attentive voice. As I look back on that day, I realize it was the Holy Spirit whispering to my heart, bringing a warm, gentle feeling of peace and calm over me.