JOY! The noun means to experience great pleasure and delight, to rejoice with gladness, to be happy beyond measure. That is the name our friends, Ethel and Joe, gave their baby girl born with spina bifida. “She will not live beyond three months,” the doctors said, but she was a fighter and she proved them wrong. Though confined to a wheelchair her entire life, she became the epitome of her name, JOY. Always thinking of others, she became a blessing to those fortunate enough to meet her.      Joy, sitting in her hospital bed at home, was a regular listener to WJYP with its Christian music and commentary. A few years ago WJYP offered free tickets to Sea World to the first caller who could identify a certain set of songs. Joy decided to enter it. She told her mom that since Ted and I had just lost two of our parents in quick succession, she wanted to give the tickets to us. “Ted and Evelyn need a vacation,” she said. Listening carefully to the melodies, she copied the names of the songs on a piece of paper and dialed WJYP. Hers was the first phone call that had it right. “Go pick up your tickets to Sea World,” she told me on the phone, “I won them just for you two so you could get out of town for a few days of rest.”      Deeply touched by the efforts of this disabled teenager on our behalf, we accepted her offer and spent three wonderfully relaxing days at Sea World. Joy’s care for us made it possible. Before we left Sea World we chose a darling white seal pup to give her to show our appreciation for her love toward us. It rested on a shelf in her bedroom until the Lord called her home.      A few weeks before Joy graduated from Capital High School, Ethel confided to a few friends that her daughter was praying, asking the Lord to let her attend Prom with a date “just like all the other girls.” All of us knew that this was an impossibility. Joy had never had a date, nor a boyfriend and was wheelchair bound.      I was heartbroken to hear of her prayers. This sweet young girl with spina bifida was trusting the Lord for the impossible. It would take a miracle for it to happen, and miracles are few and far between. I earnestly sought the Lord, asking Him to comfort her when she had to face the disappointment of unanswered prayer.      Then, out of the blue her father, Joe, got a phone call. It was a boy on the high school football team–and he had a request. “May I take your daughter to the Prom,” he asked?” He explained that he knew Joy was an avid fan who supported her team, win or lose, and had met her since she often parked her wheelchair near where the team sat during the games.      Of course her father, overcome with emotion, said yes. Joy took it in stride because she had never doubted that God would hear and answer her prayers. But I, who thought it was impossible, bawled my eyes out at the news. “O, ye of little faith,” I thought.      Ethel dressed her daughter in a lovely gown and put special decorations all over her wheelchair. Joy and her date went to the Prom just like the other kids. Everyone watched, teary eyed, as her football team hero pushed her wheelchair onto the floor to dance. It was the highlight of her years at Capital High, and a lesson to me to be more trusting in sincerely offered prayers.      On the day she got her diploma there was not a dry eye at Capital High School including those of her two proud parents. It had been a struggle, getting that diploma, but she had done it. As she wheeled across the stage to receive it, she got a standing ovation.      Though Joy was ill and on oxygen for most of the rest of her life, she stayed busy doing volunteer work for several businesses. She also helped in her church office and with the AWANA program for young children. All the while, keeping an eye on her friends so she could be an encouragement when needed.      Joy had served her parents, her friends and her Lord for 29 years when she died. The little white seal pup we bought for her at Sea World now looks down on me from its perch in my home as I write this. You see, Joy knew she was going to her real Home, so she asked her mom to see that Ted and I got the seal back as a parting gift from her. Every time I glance its way I am reminded of our friend who had great and unfailing faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, her Savior. When she asked the Lord for a date to the Prom, she knew something I didn’t: that our Heavenly Father loves and listens to the prayers of physically challenged little girls, and He answers.

Evelyn R. Smith © 2002 Bible Center Church Back To Main Page / Archive of Previous Articles