Why the Choir Was Late

 

But Jesus beheld them, and said unto them,

With men this is impossible;

but with God all things are possible.

—      Matthew 19:26

 

 

The following story originally appeared in the March 27, 1950 issue of Life Magazine and was reprinted in the June 1950 issue of Reader's Digest. It was subsequently reprinted in The 30th Anniversary Reader's Digest Reader, published in 1951.

 

Why the Choir Was Late

George H. Edeal

 

It happened on the evening of March 1 in the town of Beatrice, Neb. In the afternoon the Reverend Walter Klempel had gone to the West Side Baptist Church to get things ready for choir practice. He lit the furnace -- most of the singers were in the habit of arriving around 7:15, and it was chilly in the church -- and went home to dinner.

 

But at 7:10, when it was time for him to go back to the church with his wife and daughter, Marilyn Ruth, it turned out that Marilyn Ruth's dress was soiled, so Mrs. Klempel ironed another. Thus they were still at home when it happened.

 

Ladona Vandegrift, a high school sophomore, was having trouble with a geometry problem. She knew practice began promptly and always came early. But she stayed to finish the problem.

 

Royena Estes was ready, but the car would not start. So she and her sister, Sadie, called Ladona Vandegrift, and asked her to pick them up. But Ladona was the girl with the geometry problem, and the Estes sisters had to wait.

 

Mrs. Leonard Schuster would ordinarily have arrived at 7:20 with her small daughter, Susan. But on this particular evening she had to go to her mother's house to help her get ready for a missionary meeting.

 

Herbert Kipf, lathe operator, would have been ahead of time but had put off an important letter. "I can't think why," he said. He lingered over it and was late.

 

It was a cold evening. Stenographer Joyce Black, feeling "just plain lazy," stayed in her warm house until the last possible moment. She was almost ready to leave.

 

Because his wife was away, machinist Harvey Ahl was taking care of his two boys. He was going to take them to practice with him, but somehow he got wound up talking. When he looked at his watch, he saw he was already late.

 

Marilyn Paul, the pianist, had planned to arrive half an hour early. However, she fell asleep after dinner, and when her mother awakened her at 7:15 she had time only to tidy up and start out.

 

Mrs. F.E. Paul, choir director, and mother of the pianist, was late simply because her daughter was. She had tried unsuccessfully to awaken the girl earlier.

 

High school girls Lucille Jones and Dorothy Wood are neighbors and customarily go to practice together. Lucille was listening to a 7-to-7:30 radio program and broke her habit of promptness because she wanted to hear the end. Dorothy waited for her.

 

At 7:25, with a roar heard in almost every corner of Beatrice, the West Side Baptist Church blew up. The walls fell outward, the heavy wooden roof crashed straight down like the weight in a deadfall.

 

But, because of such matters as a soiled dress, a cat nap, an unfinished letter, a geometry problem and a stalled car, all of the members of the choir were late -- something which had never happened before.

 

Firemen thought the explosion had been caused by natural gas, which may have leaked into the church from a broken pipe outside and been ignited by the fire in the furnace. The Beatrice choir members had no particular theory about the fire's cause, but each of them began to reflect on the heretofore inconsequential details of his life, wondering at exactly what point it is that one can say, "This is an act of God."

 

 

 

 

Here's the rebuilt West Side Baptist Church

as it stands today.

 

 

Don't you love everything about this story?

 

Don't you love how it illustrates God's provision for His people . . . His incalculable caring . . . His countless ways of showing us He loves us, especially those of us who have come to Him in faith?

 

Christmas is all about the impossible coming true.

 

As it happened in Beatrice, it happens for each of us believers, every day on Earth, and for eternity in heaven.

 

This Christmas season, hope you'll go around with a big smile on your face, and a spring in your step, regardless of the trials and troubles you may be facing. Smile, because the impossible happened that Christmas morning so long ago. And it keeps happening every day, every year, every century, ever since . . . as it always will.

 

Enjoy this week of Christmas . . . and remember, with God, nothing is impossible!!! †