"And God knew as badly as Jonathan needed a pastor and the Rands needed a pastor, God knew that this pastor needed a Jonathan. And it was the greatest knock on a door I've ever made my entire life. And it's something that I will carry with me until heaven."
Pastor Roger Sherrer was expecting a package from UPS, but instead of it arriving at the church, it was oddly delivered to a home in a rural area an hour-and-a-half away from where the pastor works in Missouri. "And we got a phone call from a lady that said, 'Hey, we've got a package. We don't know why it's here, but it's addressed to Pastor Roger Shearer, First Baptist Church of Lebanon.' And I mean, I was so confused because how could this package end up in a very kind of rural area that it just didn't make sense how it could have ended up there. And so, I was angry, I was frustrated, I was mad, and I didn't want to call UPS to redirect the package. They had already screwed it up the first time. So, I'm thinking, well, I'm just going to go get the package myself.
And so, in all of my crankiness, I got in the car and I drove an hour and a half and GPS-ed to this house. And like I said, from my perspective, in the middle of nowhere, got lost a couple times, but finally ended up there, knocked on the door and a lady answered. When I walked in, I immediately saw medical packaging that was almost stacked to the ceiling of the house. It made sense why my package at that point had gotten redirected because the package had ended up in all of this medical equipment. I mean, it looked like a little hospital room. I was kind of wondering, okay, that's interesting. And so, as I walked in, I went to the living room and I saw a 10-year-old boy that was also surrounded with some medical stuff. And I introduced myself and found out that his name was Jonathan."
That changed everything, including Pastor Roger's perspective!
You can hear our full podcast interview here
"And Jonathan (Rand) had just turned 10-years-old, and Jonathan was suffering from stage four brain cancer. And the prospect of it didn't look good. He had a surgery coming up, he had chemo, radiation, all of these different things. And so, as I met Jonathan, I also met Jenny, who was Jonathan's mom and Donna, who was Jonathan's grandma. And as I was talking to them, they immediately told me, they said, 'We don't know why we got your package, but we don't think it was on accident. They said, since you're here, would you just be willing to pray for our grandson, Jonathan?'
I got to pray with them as a family.
My drive home was a drive of humility of saying, 'God, thank you so much for kind of putting me in my place and having that accidental encounter that was truly a divine encounter because from there I became a pastor to this family.'"
Sadly, Jonathan passed away recently. But The Rand Family had the presence and support of Pastor Roger and many from First Baptist Church. At the funeral, "there was no room. I mean, there was nowhere else to sit because so many people had heard of Jonathan, knew his story, and had gone to the funeral ... not only did I get to bless the family in the last year, but just people that got to hear this story of how I was even able to meet this family, which can only be explained by God. I mean it is only a divine explanation that can be given."
K-LOVE's Richard mentions to Pastor Roger, "It's kind of cool to know that we serve a God who knows the future."
Pastor Roger responds: "Yeah, it ordains the future. Not only does he know it, I think that there are certain things that God in his magnificence, he knew Jonathan's story. He knew what Jonathan needed, but he also knew what I needed. I mean, this was my first year as a senior pastor. There was a lot going on in my ministry. There had been some discouragement in my life. I think God knew that Jonathan Rand needed a pastor, and I think that God knew that Pastor Roger needed a Jonathan. And I have no doubt about that. And now I have an opportunity to be a pastor to the Rand family an hour and a half away. But I just talked to Jenny this morning. I mean, we now have a bond that only could have happened because of God. And as you said, God, knowing what that next step is going to be and what that can entail."
"Love never ends." - from 1 Corinthians 13:8 (NCV)