I have a friend who always says, “God really answered that prayer!” I have said to him, many times, that God answers every prayer of a believer. But it goes right past him and he will say it again next time. Sometimes, God says ‘NO,’ which is still an answer, just not what we were looking for. And, sometimes His answer is right out of the blue, one of those answers you know was making Him chuckle as He arranged it.

          Homesickness is a terrible thing, I suppose. It never has really bothered me, though. Maybe it is because I always have three of four things going on at once. I never have had time for those lingering thoughts of home that cause homesickness.

          My wife, however, is another matter. When we left the frozen north and moved to Miami she went through withdrawal pains. It was not that she missed the cold and bitter weather that winter could bring along the shores of Lake Erie where she was born and raised, it was just that those cold shores was where her family was, it was where home remained. After living in Florida for a long time the ministry brought us back into the area we were from to begin with. Then she was homesick for Florida. Go figure.

          Anyway, we were coming up on our first Christmas in Miami. Marsha did okay for a while. People were stringing lights in the tops of palm trees and wearing short sleeved Santa suits and the sun baked the ground in December just like it did in June, so neither of us were getting to Christmassy. But then one Sunday in early December I was watching a football game that was being played in Buffalo, New York and it was snowing. Marsha saw the snow and all of a sudden she was overcome with all those homesick feelings. After that, everything on TV had to do with Christmas and snow and cozy feelings. Marsha was miserable.

          There wasn’t anything I could do to help her, of course, other than send her home. She didn’t want that, but she was still despondent over it all. I confess, I didn’t help all the time. Early one morning a week before Christmas we were both awakened by the throaty growl of a passing garbage truck.

          “What was that?” Marsha asked.

          “Snowplow.”

          “Oh.”

          Then, silence for a few seconds until she realized I was pulling her leg. Then the tears started. She thought I was the most unfeeling thing she had ever met, and she was mostly right.

          That evening I told her that if we really believed in answered prayer we could pray for a white Christmas and God would provide. No, she said, it was Miami. One brief little snowfall in the entire history of the town. It was highly doubtful that Miami would be blanketed by white on Christmas morning.

          But, I argued, we have not because we ask not. Maybe it could be in God’s will for just one little snowfall. We just needed to pray about it.  So we did. We began to pray daily for a white Christmas. By Christmas Eve, even though the weather forecast was calling for warm and muggy weather for Christmas, we were certain we would see white the next morning.

          Even before we had a child to wake us up, Marsha was an early riser on Christmas. She has always enjoyed the holiday immensely. So, even before daybreak she shook me awake. I awoke to hear the air conditioner running, so it didn’t sound very promising. We walked to the front of our apartment and, with sinking hearts, opened the door.

          What to our wondering eyes should appear!?!?!?!?!?!

          Miami, Florida, city of no snow, was absolutely blanketed by the white stuff. When we opened the door the oppressive heat just rolled into our apartment, but the city was still coated in white.

          Fog.

          The heaviest fog I had ever seen, or ever would see. So heavy we couldn’t see the railing outside our door or the lights in the palm tree. Fog that was so dense that when we went out to our car after breakfast and just after sunrise we nearly got lost in the parking lot. Miami was completely covered. And it didn’t even start to clear until that evening.

          So, we had our white Christmas after all. All we could do was laugh about it. We hadn’t specified snow and we didn’t get snow, but it was definitely white.

          You see, God does have a sense of humor. It is often said that you should be careful what you pray for, because the Lord will give it to you.