Something Beautiful Your Way Comes

I received this letter from a dear niece (by marriage) recently. It reminded me of how, in this COVID-19 darkened world, God is still at work, still attending to the details of our lives, extending himself to comfort us and creatively minister to us – sometimes with a plan that has been 20-some years in the making. 

She began her letter to me this way:

Auntie Valerie,

I want to share an Awana story with you. My 92-year-old grandmother fell a little over a week ago and broke her hip. She underwent surgery, but then had a hard time coming out of her anesthesia. After three days, they believed she had had a stroke. Things were not looking good for her, and the hospital called our family in to say good-bye. But when we arrived at the hospital, our grandmother had woken up and was talking, knew who we were and was asking for food. It seemed like a miracle turn-around.  

But then that night, we found out that one of our cousins who was visiting with us, had (late that day) tested positive for COVID. So just when we had finally been able to interact with my grandmother, and it seemed like she was turning around, we were all kicked out of the hospital and sent home to quarantine. I was almost inconsolable. To think of her finally awake and alert but just lying there by herself was almost more than I could bear. 

That’s when what seemed like a second miracle happened for our family. When I called the hospital to check on my grandmother, I spoke to her nurse. This woman explained that she actually knew my grandmother. Twenty years ago, my grandmother had volunteered as a “listener” to children’s memory verses at Awana. This nurse had been one of those children! She told me how dear my grandmother had been to her then. She also said she had been sitting with my grandmother even when she didn’t need anything, just so that she wouldn’t be alone. I burst into tears. It was the prayer I couldn’t even have prayed. It was such a gift to our family to know that though we couldn’t be there with my grandmother, she was not alone. That week our family got this letter in the mail from the nurse, and I thought you would appreciate reading it and knowing how God has used Awana in our family. 

Dear Family of Mrs. Prince,

It was good speaking to you on the phone today. Please know that I have absolutely loved getting the blessing of caring for your sweet grandmother! As I told you, she used to listen to me recite Bible verses when I was in Awana at first Baptist, and I remember her so joyously teaching kids about the Lord at vacation Bible school. I know that God is the Great Healer, and I do believe that He has his hand on Mrs. Prince. Although we do not know what may lie ahead, I pray for comfort and peace for your family through any circumstance. I am positive that he has blessed every person she has ever interacted with, and don’t even get me started on that beautiful smile! The joy of the Lord truly shines through Mrs. Prince. I can’t believe she remembered my family after 20 some years, but she sure is unforgettable herself. Praying for your family as you go forward!

Much love, 

Your grandmother’s nurse

Today, like many of you, my prayers include those affected by COVID-19 – an 80-year-old friend who is struggling with low oxygen levels and a weak heart, and the family of a friend I recently lost due to the virus.

But even as COVID has exhausted our prayers and bent our hearts to the pain of death, isolation and fear, this terrible season is still God’s story. Into our years of mourning and loss, something beautiful comes our way  – like a child grown up with Scriptures in her heart, a child who becomes a nurse who does more than care for bodies, she holds an aged woman’s hand in the loneliness of a quarantined hospital room and remembers how beautiful that woman once was, how formative that woman was spiritually. And she believes God amazingly had knit them together 20 years ago for this very crucial moment.

In the midst of the news clamor about COVID-19, we can take heart and look for the God story that is happening in our own lives today. Because He is still near, still for us, still with us, we can be resilient.

As we recently sang in church, “There is another in the fire. I will never be alone.” God is still working out the details of our lives. He is still writing beauty into the darkest chapters of our lives. A world stricken with disease and death cannot dampen His love. Twenty years in the future, perhaps some of us will experience a comfort, a joy, an event that began in these pandemic years. Today, Feb. 23, 2022, is still God’s story. Today, may something beautiful come your way and may you not miss it.