Be Available To God

At times it is clear that God has put me in place to help someone in need.  Christmas Eve 2011, in a hospital bed, was one of those times. I’d had major abdominal surgery the day before and was alone in a double room until early on Christmas Eve when the door opened and in came an elderly lady, loudly bemoaning her circumstances. 

“It’s terrible! Terrible!” She was wheeled in surrounded by a nurse and her family.  Her daughter, a bit frazzled, smiled sweetly, if not apologetically, over to her mother’s new roomie. I just watched, stranded flat on my bed. Finally, after much ado, it was just the two of us— me and the lamenting one. I think it was then God told me, You are going to be friends. I quickly conceded, understanding that otherwise I would not only be in agony from my incision, but also from my roommate.

Miss June wouldn’t eat, couldn’t take herself to the bathroom, and grieved being apart from her church family at Christmas. Though it caused searing pain for me to get out of bed, the nurses had told me to move. So I ambled over to Miss June at mealtimes and encouraged her to sip her soup. She squawked when pricked with needles, so I’d hobble over and hold her hand. And once, when Miss June was finally eating on her own, a nurse breezed in to take her blood. By then, I was my roomie’s self-designated guardian and I commanded the woman to come back when Miss June was finished!

I left Miss June on Christmas Day a little sad, but richly blessed and pleased to have been there for a friend in Jesus.  I wonder how often I miss the opportunity to share the love of Jesus, simply because I’m able to walk on by.

For if you remain silent at this time, relief and deliverance for the Jews will arise from another place, but you and your father’s family will perish. And who knows but that you have come to your royal position for such a time as this? Esther 4:14