My Olympic Memory

The Olympics in Brazil are about to begin, and the torch has made it to Rio de Janeiro! It makes me think back to 1984 when Los Angeles hosted the Summer Olympics. I had but one burning desire: to see an Olympic torch runner. The newspaper said that 50 of the torchbearers would be running pre-determined routes throughout the city. We were still somewhat newlyweds, but I courageously asked, “Oh, Ken, can we find a place to watch a runner pass by with the torch?” Now you have to know, Ken hates crowds. “Joni”, he said, “It’s just not going to happen.” I sighed and, for the moment, let it go. But I kept praying.

That Sunday evening we planned to drive into downtown L.A. to eat dinner at Ken’s favorite hole-in-the-wall, the Far East Café in Little Tokyo. After dinner, we headed back home up the 405. By the time we neared Sunset Boulevard, traffic ahead started to thicken. According to the schedule, the torch runner would have paralleled the freeway over six hours earlier. Suddenly, we saw brake lights. “Oh no,” Ken groaned, “what’s with all this traffic? The runner ran this stretch hours ago!” And I’m thinking, “Oh no, he didn’t. He’s late and we are going to see him!”

As our car chugged along in the slow lane, we came upon news trucks, motorcycles, helicopters AND the Olympic torchbearer running up a 20 yard stretch of road paralleling the slow lane of the 405! We kept pace with him for those whole 20 yards. “Ken, would you look at this?!” I cheered. My husband couldn’t believe his eyes. How we just “happened” to be in that lane of six lanes of traffic at the precise instant when the flame-bearer (six hours late) was running that short stretch, well… it was impossible. Yet my Father in heaven heard his daughter’s wistful prayer and He brought it all to pass. Psalm 10:17 says, “You hear, O Lord, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry.” May those be encouraging words for you today, no matter what you ask of the Lord, He hears you. And enjoy the Olympics!