Monday, January 5, 2009

Coincidence or More?

Yesterday, I was coming out of a grocery store in another town when I was approached by a lady who looked as if she were consumed with confusion and hurt - after expressing to me that she did not want to take up any of my time or cause me any bother - she simply asked me if I would pray for her. She proceeded to explain to me that she had just lost her 27 year old daughter to - yes - breast cancer. She shared her daughter's story with me of how the doctors had told her that they had gotten it all and that she would be fine and yet that was not the case. The cancer had metastasized throughout her body and stolen her daughter's young life. It was clear this precious distraught lady was devastated and heartbroken. Now this lady knew nothing of my story - why me? Why did this lady choose me out of all of the people coming out of that store to share her burden with and how did she know that I would pray? I told her a little part of my story but more than that I just wrapped my arms around her and honestly I did want to let her go. I felt her pain and as I felt her pain all of my troubles fell away. It seems to me that we spend most of our lives searching for reasons for our grim situations and for answers as to why we are here and how we can get more stuff. But what do we do when everything is going right? When everyone is well and we have all that we need and life is good - do we take the time to thank God or just wait until things go wrong so we can blame Him. Wanda was her name and she humbly asked for prayer and she reminded me of how blessed I am. I do not believe this was merely coincidence and I also do not believe that everything that happens to us is about us or for us. Wanda did not know that I needed her as much as she needed me and that is the thing - we need one another. I know this is heavy but my heart is burdened. Through the trials in my life - though hard - I want to embrace what God teaches me while I am there. I have learned through all of life's pain if we will allow Him to He will mold us into something greater than we could ever imagine. We have each other and we have Him - what more do we need?