Good morning…
The wordless prayer card above sits beside me in the living room as I write. The man depicted looks so much like my dad reading the paper at the kitchen table in their sunny Ohio villa. “Good Life,” the main heading in the newspaper, is something my parents have enjoyed for 85 and 86 years. The Anne Nelson angel figures to the left embody the everlasting love filling my mom and dad.
December 6th is here. We have been waiting for this day expectantly for many long weeks. Three months ago, my mom had surgery on our son’s wedding day, a surgery that saved her life but left her with a colostomy bag. This messy bag has been the bane of my parents’ existence this fall. Awkward. Frustrating. Really hard to manage. Hopefully, today’s surgery will reverse the earlier procedure, freeing my mom from the need for this bag.
“Are you going to Ohio for your mom’s surgery on Wednesday,” a friend texted me earlier in the week.
“No,” I replied. “When I asked my mom about visiting in December, she quickly said, ‘Just wait to come in 2024. It’s going to be a much better year!’ I love her optimistic spirit. They do not know December details, since so much is up in the air until after the surgery. What a relief it will be to wake up on the other side of this chaos. We’ll make plans for my next visit when she is on the road to recovery.”
“Sue, I was just checking in,” another friend texted yesterday morning. “I think your mom’s surgery is tomorrow. Sending prayers for your parents. Please keep us updated.”
God has built a nest around our family with so many praying people. Today is a day for me to stay put in Atlanta while my sister goes with my parents to the hospital for the 8:30 am surgery. Thankfully, she will wait with my dad throughout the procedure, a surgery predicted to take five or six hours. I talked with them last night. I will talk with them again today. But for now, up in the middle of the night, I come to rest with God in prayer for this important day ahead.
I flip over my prayer card and read this quote by Morgan Freeman. “Learning how to be still, to really be still and let life happen – that stillness becomes a radiance.”
As I come to rest right now, sitting still with God, I pray for palpable, powerful radiance. From Georgia to Ohio, from heaven down to earth, may the radiance of Almighty God comfort, guide, and heal.
God is on the move…
[pause]
His splendor overtakes the skies;
His praise fills every corner of the earth.
His radiance is like a bright light, rays stream down from His hand,
and there His power is hidden (Habakkuk 3:3-4, VOICE).
Thank you for joining me as I pray today for God’s powerful radiance to fill my mom and my dad, my sister and the surgeon.
…Sue…
