Today is a double exercise day! Chuck had PT, negotiated for new boat trailer tires, and walked 1 1/2 mile…. and all with the blood pressure of a young athlete. He goes for naps when he is tired, and indeed he’s still recovering from 3 hours of brain surgery, and almost 2 days of seizures. We are grateful that so many people come and tell him how much they pray for him! I received an email from my niece and I want to share it (below). Along with brain surgery recovery books, I am reading a book on "God-incidences" which the book calls God-winks with the premise: God lets us know we are his immediate concern: "…Your God has chosen you from all the peoples on earth to be a people particularly his own… he set his heart on you and he owns you." (Deut 7:6-7) God touches us and moves us, and I thank God that many of us don’t ignore the little shoves God gives and we do good things and we recognize his hand and praise him. Thank God! I have talked often this month to people about the miracles that happened during Chuck’s trouble. Our friend Aurora got us in to a very crowded Doctor’s day, Doctor saw something he didn’t like and he sent Chuck "immediately" for an MRI. The MRI tech saw a lot of something he didn’t like and with the hand of God (through Aurora and Claudia) we connected the radiologist and general practice doctors after 5pm on a very busy day so that the ER was waiting for Chuck and whisked him away saying they were "waiting for him." Debby was available to hold me when I needed holding, to feed me, and to drive me to the hospital for the next 7 days because she wasn’t working any more for a while….. Now who stops working on a Thursday afternoon for the next 10 days and then your friend needs you? Who but God put three specialists in the same room looking at Chuck’s CT scan because it was "interesting?" Indeed WHO? My friends and I have looked at each other a lot during the past month and just shook our heads asking silently, "did you see that?????" I have been afraid through this journey, and when I was most afraid, a friend reminded me to pray. Thanks friends. Love Susie
Here’s a little "God-incidence story"… Next time it looks like something bad is happening to you consider being an angel …
I was driving home from a meeting about 5pm, stuck in traffic, and the car started to choke and splutter – I barely managed to coast, cursing, into a gas station, glad only that I would not be blocking traffic and would have a somewhat warm spot to wait for the tow truck. Before I could make the call for a tow truck, I saw a woman walking out of the quickie mart building, and it looked like she slipped on some ice and fell into a gas pump, so I got out to see if she was okay. When I got there, it looked more like she had been overcome by sobs than that she had fallen; she was a young woman who looked really haggard with dark circles under her eyes. She dropped something as I helped her up, and I picked it up to give it to her. It was a nickel.
At that moment, everything came into focus for me: the crying woman, the ancient Suburban crammed full of stuff with 3 kids in the back (1 in a car seat), and the gas pump reading $4.95.
I asked her if she was okay and if she needed help, and she just kept saying "I don’t want my kids to see me crying!" So we stood on the other side of the pump from her car. She said she was driving to California and that things were very hard for her right now. So I asked, ‘And you were praying?’ That made her back away from me a little, but I assured her I was not a crazy person and said, ‘He heard you, and He sent me.’
I took out my card and swiped it through the card reader on the pump so she could fill up her car completely, and while it was fueling, walked to the next door McDonald’s and bought 2 big bags of food, some gift certificates for more, and a big cup of coffee. She gave the food to the kids in the car, who attacked it like wolves, and we stood by the pump eating fries and talking a little.
She told me her name, and that she lived in Kansas City. Her boyfriend left 2 months ago and she had not been able to make ends meet. She knew she wouldn’t have money to pay rent Jan. 1, and finally, in desperation, had called her parents, with whom she had not spoken in about 5 years. They lived in California and said she could come live with them and try to get on her feet there. So she packed up everything she owned in the car. She told the kids they were going to California for Christmas, but not that they were going to live there. I gave her my gloves, a little hug and said a quick prayer with her for safety on the road. As I was walking over to my car, she said, ‘So, are you like an angel or something?’
This definitely made me cry. I said, ‘Sweetie, at this time of year angels are really busy, so sometimes God uses regular people.’
It was so incredible to be a part of someone else’s miracle. And of course, you guessed it, when I got in my car it started right away and got me home with no problem. I’ll put it in the shop tomorrow to check, but I suspect the mechanic won’t find anything wrong.
Sometimes the angels fly close enough to you that you can hear the flutter of their wings…
Psalm 55:22(23) ‘Cast your burden upon the Lord, and He will sustain you. He will never let the righteous fall.’