Redeeming the Time

Aug 14, 2022 | by The Fellowship

I am always asking God to show me where He wants me and how He can use me. Sometimes it is totally unexpected!

My husband and I were facing a very difficult time back in the spring.  We were in the CCU waiting room at a local hospital expecting at any time to get a report from the doctor. My husband’s mother was not doing well, and the diagnosis was not good. She had moved to Katy from California several years ago to be near us after my father-in-law died.

As we were sitting in the only family waiting area, I heard my name called.  As a former teacher, this is not terribly unusual at the grocery store or other public places.  However, this was different.

I looked up to see the face of a former student. Not only had she been in one of my high school classes, but I had always stopped to talk with her when our paths crossed around campus. She had had a traumatic brain injury, and I liked to check on her to see how my prayers for her healing were being answered.  But that was several years ago.  She had recovered remarkably, graduated, and gone off to college.

I asked her why she was in the CCU.  She said, “My mother just died.”  I know the shock showed on my face even as my heart broke for her.  Not only had she already endured great trauma in her life, now she had to face the future without her mother.  I learned that her mother was 60, my age.  This young woman was a senior at UT Austin and set to graduate in May.  But her mother would not be there to celebrate with her – or to help her plan a wedding when the time came – or to hold her children when they were born.

Without hesitation, I asked if I could pray for her and the family. It was really such a natural response. I know that Christ is the ONLY thing I have, and when everything is taken away, He will still be with me. I hoped this was true for her as well.

How welcoming it was to hear her say, “I am a Christian, also.”   I immediately began to pray -- or rather the Holy Spirit prayed through me because I have no memory of the words I uttered.  We hugged and cried together. Her family members began showing up, and she was whisked away with them.  But the Lord’s presence lingered with us.

This event really impacted my husband. We were there to let his mother go, but never expected that God would redeem the time of waiting by allowing His compassion to flow through us to another. Our God knows all things and can arrange them in such a way that they are meaningful and perfect.

Out of the ashes of that event, God gave hope to a sweet young girl who had just lost her mother.  He prepared that moment so she could be physically hugged, comforted, and prayed for by someone representing Jesus “with skin on.”  I was in the right place at the right time and so very grateful for the moment.

Even in the most difficult of times, God is still on His throne. He works in ways we cannot anticipate or even fathom. His mercies are new every morning, and great is His faithfulness.

N. V.

For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works,
which God prepared in advance for us to do. 
Ephesians 2:10