When God says ‘No’

Tom Pinney

A few months ago, a friend of mine cut off his hand.

When I first met Sheldon, we were in a table read for a musical we were both in. That year, the Ohio Valley Summer Theater company was putting on Ragtime, and he and I were playing two of the male leads in an ensemble cast. He was Coalhouse Walker, Jr., and I was simply named Father.

Sheldon and I became rather fast friends, a bond that could only be forged on the boards of that theater when doing a show of that nature. That, and we were both really good at what we did. Talent recognizes talent; his vocals were outstanding and he could rock a piano to its very core.

After I moved away from Athens, Sheldon and I kept in touch some over Facebook. Turns out, while he was also helping his church in the band (of course), he was running a brand new rotisserie-style chicken place and a few other food vending options in southern Ohio.

That’s where the accident happened. While working on a new restaurant and using a table saw, he accidentally sliced off his hand.

Sheldon is a man of God, something immediately apparent from the second you meet him. It has nothing to do with gaudy jewelry or obvious tattoos and everything to do with the fact that he carries himself as a man saved by God’s grace generally would.

If he knows you know Jesus, he asks you what He’s been doing in your life. If he doesn’t, he talks to you about Jesus.

So when he posted an update from the hospital, where he said they were going to reattach his hand but they were afraid that it wouldn’t work as before, he told everyone watching to pray.

And pray, we did.

A few days later, another update: they had reattached the veins, but the blood wasn’t flowing. They would need to make a decision soon on amputation, so Sheldon told us to pray for a strong blood flow.

And pray, we did.

Sheldon’s faith never wavered. There was never a point in this time where he didn’t believe that his reattached hand would work one day.

At no point did Sheldon believe that he would be without his left hand. Even in the midst of overwhelming odds, Sheldon said that he would be playing the piano again soon, and told us to keep praying.

And pray, we did.

But God said, “no.”

At the end of the week, the doctors determined that the blood flow was not sufficient enough, and they amputated Sheldon’s left hand. They stitched up the wound, and not long after, Sheldon was released from the hospital.

For the past few years, I, like the rest of the area, was praying for little Preslee Wendle, a toddler diagnosed with leukemia. With every update, every fundraiser, every event, we were told to pray that she would get better, that her counts would rise, that she would live.

And pray, we did.

But God said no, and last week, Preslee went to Heaven.

I’m not going to act like this is supposed to feel good. Death hurts, but when it happens to your own child, that pain is exponentially worse, expected or not. And while no words will bring her back, there is always something to gain when God says “no.”

Remember Sheldon? Doctors began fitting him for a prosthetic hand, but they told him he would never play the piano again because prosthetics, though lifelike, can’t actually move.

With two hands, Sheldon was a raw talent on the keys. News like that is fit to break a man.

But days after being released from the hospital, Sheldon posted a video someone recorded of him speaking in front of his church, telling them that God is great. In the face of being told “no,” Sheldon said, “okay,” and he kept praising God.

Two weeks later, he posted another video someone took of him. In this one, he was playing the piano. His one hand playing the lead and the chords, and the nub where his left hand used to be playing the lower keys.

Never have I ever heard more beautiful music than what I heard on this video. A man who had been shaken, whose faith had been tested, singing praise to God in spite of his circumstances.

And a room full of people singing with him, not a dry eye among them.

The Bible says that our faith will be tested on this earth, in many different ways. One of the most amazing things in the world is to see someone who, after a great tragedy, praises God when human instinct says they should be really mad at Him.

To the Wendle family, words can’t express the deep sorrow the entire community feels for your loss. But always remember that God is ready to carry you through this troubling time.

You can bet Preslee is sitting on Jesus’ lap giving him a big ol’ hug right now. She is pain-free, cancer-free, and telling everyone up there how much your family and this community loved her while she was here.

It may be of little consolation, but God always has a plan. Whatever happens in this world, God already has it thought out.

While we don’t know what it is, we know it will be good (Romans 8:28) and that until it gets to that point, we know that God will be there for us the whole way (Deuteronomy 31:6).

As for the Wendle family, you also have a community behind you, ready to support you no matter what that looks like.

Tom Pinney is a news reporter for the Maryville Daily Forum