CLEANUP MAN By Kay King-Hill David Hinton, a special son-in- the Savior whom I inherited several years ago, shared his blessing of meeting Kegley Rehabilitation Hospital''s custodian. I guess we can call him the cleanup man. Piltching this in--you do know in the chronicles of sports, baseball''s cleanup position is key to victory. After previous batters load the bases, cleanup steps in to bring them home! So it is with commercial brooms and mops, disinfectants and wastebasket liners, Kegley''s maintenance man is equipped with a far more powerful entity. Prayer. "I don''t even know the patients here," this employee confided, "but I pray for each one of them every day.!" Cleanup?Yes, the Temple Texas clinic''s clincher of victory. Well, right here let''s revisit a couple of this custodian''s predecessors. From Scripture, we can consider the prophet Elisha. (His mom must have named her son in faith, for his moniker means God is Savior! Cleanup man this kid was destined to be, especially in later life with that double-portion anointing procured by Elijah, his revered predecessor. At one point Elisha visited the home of a widow after she''d learned that creditors would soon confiscate her sons to satisfy her indebtedness. So then God''s man on the scene proceeded to close out her crisis by telling her to borrow "not a few" empty vessels to hold God''s divine, lifegiving Supply of oil.! Okay. I''ll try to resist the temptation to interpret God''s Holy Ghost anointing oil prayed into and filling our own empty places. Well, I almost resisted. . . . Then farther along his missionary journey, Elisha met a kind and gracious lady of Shunem, to whom he prophesied God would grant her heart''s desire--the birth of a son. Of course God fulfilled His Word to Elisha but the severest of tragedies was to ensue. In a later season, illness and death invaded this Shunemmite''s home. After her son had died, his mother literally shut the door on death and ran for the man of God (2 Kings 4:25). In this wonderful Old Testament story we see portrayed the amazing miracle of resurrection from the dead! Elisha stepped up after this mom''s life had already been loaded with shock and shattered by grief. In faith he spoke The Word of Life into her boy! God''s cleanup man with God''s Divine resurrection power? Yes and Amen! But one more scene in Elisha''s adventurous role as cleanup after the only solution would be . . . God''s Sovereign Power. As a group of young seminary students inadvertently picked wild poisonous gourds for their soup, Elisha called for some meal (an Old Testament mercy offering in Hebrew culture) to be added to the pot of stew. So then in his faith-saturated soul, Elisha simply transformed the poisonous substance to "mercy in the pot." What a recipe! That''s strong cleanup right there! Glory. Glory hallelujah. But let me say this. Sometimes God''s cleanup man . . . is a girl. Matthew 9:20 portrays a lady who''d been trapped in a debilitating problem a long time. Against all protocol, she dared make her faith touch Christ for His Wholeness and her purity. Against all Jewish law, she pursue her Healer and went home with an undeniable, miraculous healing. Cleanup? Yes. But let''s close out this one by bowing our hearts before the greatest, most miraculous expression of Love the world has ever known. Christ''s Blood- Stained Death on the Cross "cleaned up"--destroyed--every sin, every sickness, every impurity of believers'' lives.-- Psalm 103:3! And then Christ punctuated His Victory by speaking the most vital, powerful Word of all time--indeed, throughout time and eternity. "Tetelestai!" It is finished!"-- John 19:30.