More facts and a miracle too!

I actually wanted to add that, as always, I was very proud of my husband, who will guide us in prayer before meals no matter who the strangers or where the place!

Today my brother got the guitar back.  The guitar, for those who have not read my diary for the past four years LOL was a guitar that my brother had specially made for his daughter’s fourteenth birthday.  It was purple with gold and her name inlaid in ivory, etc. etc.  It was an incredibly crafted guitar which would have retailed for $6000 but he got it specially made for $3000 because he was president of a prestigious guitar company back then.

A couple of years later, when he had been overtaken by that demon, cocaine, my brother came into his house (where he no longer really lived… only his estranged family were still there) and began to take the guitar to sell for drug money.  His wife grabbed it and begged him not to take it.  His daughter was horrified by watching this tug of war.  She went to her room and got some diamonds that her grandparents had given her for her sixteenth birthday.  Going into the hallway where her parents were literally grappling over this guitar, his daughter threw the diamonds at my brother and said, “Here, take these, but leave my mother alone!”  My brother took the diamonds AND he took the guitar.  That was when he says he hit bottom.

I’d agree with that hitting bottom thing, only it really wasn’t hitting bottom.  He did check into rehab some weeks after that, but then he left rehab and things got even worse.  By the time I sent him a bus ticket to my town, he was absolutely homeless and had no one in the world.  To be truthful, he wouldn’t have even had me except God spoke to my spirit and told me to do it.  I consulted with my Pastor and used tithing money to bring my brother here and to set him up as best I could.  Nevertheless, he still clowned around too much and used, but he had accepted Jesus after going to the men’s convention that year and God got a grip on him.  (Of course this only happened after a couple years of the most intense prayer I’ve ever done.  I requested prayer at every meeting I went to .  I requested prayer online, and I convinced my oldest brother and my mom to join me in weekly prayer for my crack brother.)

Anyway, my brother’s restoration has actually been a rapid process.  He came into town two years ago at this time.  He had no money, his mind was fried, his life was destroyed.  God has wrought a miracle.  Do you know what the relapse is for cocaine addicts?!  Especially for those on crack!!! But here he is, clean and sober and working (for very good pay once again).  He has been well employed for about 7 months and during that time has managed to save up about 16 thousand dollars.  Through miracles of God, he was able to track down the purple guitar.  It belonged to a collector… a serious guitar collector, and was very cherished, even known in collectors’ circles by the name on the guitar.

So my brother convinced it to sell it for ten thousand dollars.  He flew out there yesterday and got it.  He just called me from the plane home where he is sitting next to the guitar (for whom he had to buy a seat) and he told me that the experience was frought full of God.  The collector gentleman who sold the guitar back to him is dying of cancer and has but a year left to live.  If my brother hadn’t found him now, he might never have.  The salesman that remembered selling the guitar is the only salesman who has stayed with the store long enough to remember selling the guitar.  Turnover in retail is bad.   All things came together for this miracle moment.  Now my brother is praying that someday soon his daughter will agree to see him again and he can give the guitar back to her.  No matter what, however, this has been a cleansing moment for my brother.  This has been a miracle from God!