FAITH II

FAITH II

Climb the highest mountain you can find, and there is probably snow on the top.  Ease your way down and stop to look at the melted snow that has become a beautiful waterfall.  Follow the water down the mountain and you will come upon the pool at the bottom of the waterfall.  The pool can either be shallow or deep.  Continuing downward you will see a rush of water falling over jagged rocks and dumping into a wide river.  The river continues downward yet it doesn’t seem to be going down until you reach a meadow and the river is narrow and moving very slowly.  The water doesn’t stop here because there are creeks and ditches to fill before you arrive at a large lake. This is where the water finds a place to reside.

This is how faith can work and the journey will seem endless yet you know that you know that you cannot stop trusting God.  May I share a story of faith in my life?

My Mother was involved in an automobile accident and her back was injured.  It seemed like forever but the physician finally performed surgery to correct the problem. One afternoon my brother and I were with her in her hospital room.  After surgery her back was not healing and we were anxious to see the surgeon and understand why.  To our surprise the physician who visited was not the back surgeon but a specialist who was searching for answers to the failure of the internal incisions to heal.  He explained that she was in later stages of Hep C and this news crushed our hearts. The Oncologists searched every available avenue to understand.  Mother had contracted hepatitis when she was a younger woman supposedly through blood transfusions.  There would be no recourse or healing and she was not a candidate for a liver transplant.  

Our faith in God was our recourse.  We prayed, and we struggled with understanding why God was not healing her.  Her health deteriated to the point that her Primary physician decided to move her to a swing bed unit across from the hospital, and after the move the years crept along.

One afternoon at my home in Kentucky I stood looking out the back door while tears coursed down my face and I verbalized my agonizing prayer to God.

“God why, “ I cried, “why can’t you just take her home.  She is tired and the family is tired and God, hasn’t she suffered enough?”

His voice to my heart was kind, yet strong, as he told me, “That is not your decision.”

Several days later as I dressed to attend a prayer conference being held at the Catholic sister’s retirement village, I sat down on the side of my bed and I whined to God.

“God I cannot go to this today.  I think my faith is worn out so I cannot do this.”

I closed my eyes and wept.  The room became soundless and still and God showed me in my mind a picture of my Mother in a field of wild flowers.  She was wearing a big hat and she was dancing among those flowers.  Oh, she was so happy.

With a peaceful heart I stood, wiped my face and went to the prayer conference to have my faith stretched a little more.  I walked the beautiful grounds of the village and thanked God for his wisdom.

Mother did go home and the day she left us I was holding her when the nurse came into the room and gave her an injection.  A very young nurse placed her arm around my waist as I stood and I looked at her and said, “Her spirit has left us.”  She replied with a smile, “Yes it has.”  I went to my brother’s house and almost as soon as I lay down on the bed my sister called to tell us that Mother’s heart had ceased.  I smiled because I knew that God was in charge of all of it.

We cannot ever give up on our faith and we can never stop trusting God.  He knows when, where, how and why.  Just as the snow from the mountain top, melts, finds a way down the mountain through many different avenues, so does our faith find a way to completion.  Be still and know that He is God and He has given us enough faith to complete the journey.  I praise only you, God.