At my company, we get our paychecks only once a month, for the whole previous month's salary. Usually I have my checks autodeposited. But this month something went wrong with the computer and they cut physical pay checks for us.

I was given my check on Monday (October 2). I stuck it in my jacket pocket. I intended to deposit it that night on the way home from work, but I forgot. So I left it my pocket, planning to deposit it the next day (Tuesday) on my way home from work. I had a class that evening and was running late, so I decided to go to class before going to the bank.

I had to go to the main building for something and while I was there, the check fell out of my jacket pocket, but I did not notice. I went on to class. A little later, one of the administrators came into the classroom and handed me the envelope containing the check, telling me that I'd apparently dropped it in the office. I thanked her and explained it was a whole month's paycheck. She joked that if she'd have known that, she would have kept it and cashed it. We both laughed. I put it in a bag with some other stuff, so it would not fall out of my pocket again.

After class ended, I ran into someone I'd not seen for a while. We chatted for a bit, and one thing led to another and I totally forgot to deposit my paycheck. Instead, I went straight home from class. I get home by commuting on BART (the San Francisco bay area's equivalent of a subway), and then driving home from the BART station.

Then the next morning, as I was heading to work, I remembered the check and decided to detour by the bank on my way to work to deposit it. A month's salary is a big piece of money and my house payment was coming due soon... I got to the bank and found the check was no longer in my bag. I sort of shook my head at myself, figuring I must have accidentally taken it out of my bag when I unloaded some other stuff. It was probably sitting on my kitchen table, and I'd have to wait until tomorrow (four days after I received the check) to deposit it.

If I knew what really happened, that I'd lost the check on the BART, I would have been very worried.

Somehow my month's paycheck had fallen out of my bag Tuesday night while I was on the BART train. People from all parts of the Bay Area commute on BART. As it happened, a man who only lives about two miles from my house found the envelope laying on the subway floor. He picked it up and realized it was a paycheck. So he opened it to find out who it belonged to, looked up my name in the phone book and tried to call me to let me know he had it. Unfortunately, only phone number we have listed in the phone book is now used as our computer phone line, which does not have a telephone physically attached to it. So he was unable to get through. At that point, I still did not know my check was missing.

Since he could not get through on my home phone that evening, the next afternoon he looked up my company in the phone book and called the office. He asked to be transferred to talk to me. He told me that he had found my paycheck on BART, and that it was safe and in good hands. We made arrangements for me to swing by after work and pick up the check... and his house is only a few blocks out of my regular drive home.

It was as if God had appointed him to take care of me. I got off the phone and thanked the Lord for watching over me ... twice ... regarding that paycheck.

Then I had a flashback memory of a recent event. It was about a month ago, a Saturday of Labor Day weekend. I had to work that particular Saturday, so I rode BART into work. There was an important baseball ball game that day, so many people were riding the BART to it. I worked late and took BART home. I noticed a purse on the floor under a seat across the aisle from me. No one was in that seat. So I asked the ladies seated near there if the purse belonged to any of them, but they all said, "no." I could have left it there, but I had a sense that the Lord had appointed me to take care of the purse for the woman who had lost it. I figured that she probably felt sick and worried about it, so I began to pray for her that the Lord would give her His peace and let her know it was safe and ok. When we got to my stop, I took the purse to the station agent. I never opened it or looked inside. The station agent was amazed and grateful that I'd turned in the purse. He said most people who ride the system are not that honest. He assured me that he would get the purse back to it's rightful owner.

At that time, I sensed deep within my spirit that God had appointed me to take care of that purse for whoever it belonged to. My guess is that she was one of His children and had probably prayed for God to return it safely to her. I walked out of the BART station, then I thanked the Lord for allowing me participate with Him in protecting and blessing this woman. As an aside, I asked Him to please appoint someone to take care of me if ever I should loose my purse on BART.

Memories of that past incident all came flooding into my memory in a split second. Then the Lord spoke to me very distinctly, and said, "See, child of mine! I heard your prayer that day. And because of it, I appointed someone to take care of your paycheck when you lost it." God had arranged it so that I did not even know it was lost until I'd been told that it was found, so I never once had an opportunity to worry.

He takes such good care of His children! Isn't He an awesome and wonderful God to serve!