EDITORIAL - Hand of God

Senior Police Officer 2 Isagani Ceniza is an extraordinary man. He stands out in the society he lives in, a society whose bad examples and wrong role models shove aside the good deeds by good people, rendering them unable to highlight that which makes man the finest example of all creation.

Ceniza found money in a taxicab. It was not enough to make him rich. But the amount was considerable enough to be tempting, had Ceniza been a lesser man. Ceniza thought not of what he could have done with the money but how it must be a terrible loss to the owner.

So our policeman, who is assigned at the Cebu City Police Office, did what he felt he must do. He went through the process of finding the owner. The owner, a 63-year-old Filipino woman now living in the United States by the name of Erlinda Fleming, eventually showed up to claim the money, and some jewelry and documents.

As it turned out, the money was intended for the chemotherapy of a daughter suffering from fourth stage breast cancer. Nobody knows if the money will ever be enough to save her. But if God truly works in mysterious ways, He must be trying to send a message with this incident.

Let us all pray for the daughter who needs the chemotherapy and hope she may find the courage and the strength to realize that God must have a plan for her. Otherwise it could have been just any other cop, or any other person for that matter, who found the money. And out the window would have flown her chemotherapy.

But God knew exactly who He wanted to find the money. So He willed the circumstances to happen just as they did, and it was Ceniza who found the money. If God wants to save the woman's daughter, He willed it that Ceniza would be His instrument.

With this in mind, it should not be surprising that Ceniza refused Fleming's attempt to give him some monetary reward. With such a wonderful director juggling the pieces in this wonderful story, it becomes less difficult to keep faith in the ultimate goodness of man.

But man is still a man and Ceniza is one. And while he does not live by bread alone, ensuring that the bread by which he lives and feeds his family comes in a steady supply may not seem such a bad idea. He should be commended and promoted. It is not often that we see God's hand intervening directly in our lives.