One true God…

Yesterday I was marveling at God’s timing and how everything was working out so well…and then I received a phone call. “We have a bed for you…we are just waiting for your insurance to approve it.”

I have to say, my first thought bordered on panic. Jim was, by then, at least half way home on his eight hour drive. What if the insurance balked? I took a deep breath and said outloud, “God, I know you didn’t bring me five hundred miles from home for no reason. If this is not about me getting help, then please show me why I’m here.”

I grabbed my phone and went for a walk. The nurse told me she would call as soon as they heard back from the insurance person, so it would do me no good to sit in my room. I was anxious to get out and see if I could spot the two deer that I had seen earlier, so I headed into the woods a little ways, moving slow and quiet. As I walked, I sang Blessed Be Your Name, over and over.

A few squirrels were out and I watched them race each other up and down the trees. No deer in sight, so after a while I headed back into my room. Before long, I received a call saying everything was alright…they had the approval they needed and I could proceed to admitting.

A shuttle, staffed by volunteers, picked me up at the inn and drove me to the hospital (not far, but it was nice to have help with my luggage). I was admitted and taken to my room. There I met Char (rhymes with Star).

Char is my roommate. She has been here two weeks and will probably be here after I leave. She found out just hours before I was admitted that she has a tumor on her cerebellum. Just about the time I was complaining to God and wondering what in the world I was doing here.

Last night, after we had gotten aquainted, Char confided in me that she was “scared to death.” She said that she wasn’t sure she was going to live through whatever was to come, and that even though she believed in a higher power, she wasn’t sure whose God was THE God. That she had studied many religions and thought that they all pointed to the same God, but she didn’t believe that one was right and the rest were wrong.

She told me that she was raised Irish Catholic and that she had little need for that at all. That she had two children who lived with their father much of the time. That she and her partner shared a home with several pets.

She rarely slowed down from talking and everytime I thought I would have a chance to respond, a nurse would come in. I finally got the hint. God wanted me to listen. And so I did. When she finally got tired, I told her that I was lifting her in my prayers and she thanked me and fell asleep.

And so, I’m asking each of you to lift Char in your prayers. That God might guide the team here to find a way to heal her. That God might use me as he sees fit. That somehow, Char might feel his presence and know that He is the one true God.

Why did God bring me all the way to Chelsea, Michigan? The same reason that God does anything he does. So that others might see and know that He alone is the one true God and be praised. Big surprise…it’s not about me!

One True God