A Divine Reason to be Late

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ

The West Side Baptist Church choir in Beatrice, Nebraska, had practice every Wednesday at 1920h.  Somehow, every single member of the 15-person choir showed up late for their practice on the 01^st March 1950.  For some reason, they all felt that whatever they were doing was more important than singing the praises of the Lord.  And was the Lord Pleased?  Practice was to start at 1920h.  The church literally exploded at 1927h. 

The flame in the furnace ignited a gas leak, sending the roof of the church straight down, killing nobody.  Because every single member of the choir was late and, they missed not only their date to sing for the Lord, but also their date to meet Him.  And they each missed it for completely different reasons. 

The pianist was going to get there half an hour early, but she fell asleep after dinner.  Her mother woke her up, but she simply could not wake up.  As a result, her mother, the choir director, and her, were late.  Two high school girls, Lucille and Dorothy, were late because Lucille was listening to a riveting radio broadcast and wanted to hear the end.  This was a time before they could just download that kind of thing later. 

The Estes sisters were going to be there on time, but the car would not start.  They called Ladona Vandergrift, a high school sophomore, to get a ride with her.  However, little Ladona was doing geometry homework, and could not figure out a problem.  She spent so long on that problem that they were all late.  Ms. Schuster and her daughter missed practice because they were helping Ms. Schuster’s mother prepare for a missionary meeting. 

Herbert Kipf decided that he needed to finish a letter before he went to practice.  And because he was determined to do so, he left later than usual.  Joyce Black said that it was cold outside, so she delayed going for so long that she ended up being late.  Harvey Ahl and his two sons were late because he was talking to somebody and lost track of time. 

And finally, the reverend, who had lit the furnace earlier that day and then went home to dinner, ended up being late because his daughter made a mess in her dress, so he had to wait for his wife to iron a new one before they could all go. 

And thus, when the church exploded, all of the people who were supposed to be inside were ironing dresses and working on homework or waking up.  Considering that it was a church choir, the members pretty much agreed that it was a miracle.  And now, they have a divine reason for being late all the time.