God Is Listening

While I was writing “Don’t Give Up!” we were praying fervently for our daughter-in-law Melinda, who was battling cancer. Ironically the form of that awful disease she was fighting was the same one my wife had contracted a few years earlier and had come through and beaten. Yet even though Melinda was many years younger and stronger than my wife, her experience was different. 

Though we were blessed to share with her a few happy months between chemo treatments, the cancer kept returning and eventually claimed her life. We were grief-stricken and shocked that our prayers, which seemed reasonable and good, were not answered. That was almost two years ago, and looking back I understand what I could not at the time. Now I know that God was listening, even though the results of our prayers were completely opposite of our hopes and Melinda went to be with Jesus far earlier than we expected. 

Even as I write this, tears are not far from my eyes. Yet, as Paul says, we see God’s working only as a dim reflection. We cannot understand it all, but we trust that our God, who listens to every prayer, has answered us in Melinda’s passing. Now Melinda can see what we could not, and I know that she will be there with the rest of heaven’s welcoming committee to greet us on the day when it is time to make our own journeys there!