Infinity and Beyond

Last week, I had a list of errands to run. Before I got started, I decided to slow down, read my bible, think and pray. I left the house and ran by the Jewel to get some strawberries, but they were too expensive. So I ran by Home Depot and then Joe Caputo's grocery. (Yes, I am going somewhere we this...) As I left the store with huge bag of strawberries, I was leaving the parking lot and noticed an older women pushing her cart through the parking lot. She was looking around everywhere for her car. She reminded me so much of my 85 year old mother - petite in size. She was dressed very well.

I decided to do a u-turn in the parking lot, so that I could ask her if she needed help. She did. She was looking for a 2 door gray Infinity. I drove up and down each car aisle and found no Infinity with 2 doors. I drove back to her and told her that I couldn't find it either. I then asked her if she wanted to get in and ride around with me. She said that she would, so we loaded her groceries in my car. A minute after she got in, she said that her husband had died six years earlier. I could tell her heart was still broken, so I asked her how long had they been married. She replied , "54 years." She also told me that she lived at "Sun City...you know...where the old people live."

We continued to drive around, but nothing of her Infinity could be found, so I drove to the Home Depot parking lot and nothing there either. We began to think that her car might have been stolen. She did say that she remembered seeing the flowers in front of Caputos and that she had gone first to the granite counter store, but that they had been closed. So I headed up to that strip shopping center with the granite store...quite far from Caputos, and there the Infinity was parked. We loaded her groceries and she hugged and thanked me.

When I left the parking lot, I was in tears. Most of the time, I never slow down to see a need or hear a prompting from God, but this time I did. I slowed down to read the bible, to think and to pray and shortly after that, I was going slow enough that I felt a prompting to make a u-turn in the parking lot to help out a precious lady that needed a little help.

How many other times have I hurried past Infinity moments like this and missed on what God has for me? Do you fly right past those moments too?

My "Rock"

Samuel took a single rock and set it upright between Mizpah and Shen. He named it "Ebenezer" (Rock of Help), saying, "This marks the place where God helped us." 1 Sam. 7:12 (MSG)

My "rock" story begins with the birth of our first son, Brock. He died at 6 months old after heart surgery in 1994. Our church and Sunday school class prayed us through this horrible valley. A couple of years later, I was expecting again. The doctors were concerned about this child's heart as well. While in the womb, we were told that the baby was a girl and that she had Hypoplastic left heart. A heart defect far worse than what our son had. She would need a heart transplant at birth or 3 heart operations before she reached the age of 18 months. We were devasted. We traveled to Boston and Atlanta for 2nd and 3rd opinions, and each doctor had the same devastating news. During the months leading up to her birth, my husband and I could barely function, but hundreds of prayers were being brought before God on our behalf.
My husband, mother, mother-in-law and I flew to Michigan in August 2005, so that we were at the best place in the country for her delivery and heart operation. I delievered her on August 15, and she was taken immediatlely to the NICU. A couple of hours later, a pediatric cardiologist showed up in our room and said, "There is nothing wrong with heart....". It was an amazing miracle. At that time, my husband said, "Life will never be the same." And it hasn't. We have been sold out to our faithful God ever since that day.