Christmas night, a bug hit my husband. We’d had a gazillion
people in our house that day. We prayed no one else would get it, but a couple
of days later my son, who had left our house to travel to a remote area, became
ill. Much sicker than my husband had been. He was three hours away from us and
miles from medical help. What if he became dehydrated? I could feel myself
starting to hit the mom panic button, but then God brought a story from my own
life to mind.
For many years, I participated in Lay Witness Missions. A
coordinator would select a team from a group of volunteers across the southeast
and we’d gather at a church for a weekend to share our faith through testimony.
I participated in dozens of these across the years and saw God do amazing
things. We’d stay in the homes of church folks, people we’d never met until
that weekend.
My daughter was just a baby, but I’d agreed to participate
in a large mission about two hours from home. I was still nursing, but I
thought it was doable.
I provided music and sang on that Friday night as usual, but
after I reached the home of my hostess Betty, I started feeling a little
strange. In fact, really strange.
After we went to bed, a virus descended on me like a mortar
shell. Over the next few hours, I lost so much fluid between nursing and the
virus, by the wee hours of the morning, I only had strength to crawl to the
bathroom. A short time after that, I didn’t have strength to even crawl. I knew
I was dehydrated, but I was staying on the opposite end of a very large house from
my hostess. No way to summon help before widespread cell phone use. I knew my
baby could become dehydrated, too. I prayed she wouldn’t get it. And I prayed
for help.
“Lord, please wake up Betty. Please let her know I’m sick.”
In a few moments, I heard a cat’s loud meowing and Betty
asking of the cat, “What’s wrong with you?”
I had a glimpse of her as she let the feline out the back
door. I whispered, “Betty, I’m so sick.”
She came in my room, and I told her what had happened. She
said, “That cat has never gotten me up at night before. I guess God had her
wake me up.”
Ice chips helped rehydrate me, and this woman I’d never met
before became one of the best nurses I’d ever had. Team members came over to
pray. By that evening at 7, I was back on the piano bench singing.
My team coordinator came to me and said, “As sick as you
were this morning, you know it's a miracle you’re here tonight.”
I knew that, for sure.
So as I remembered this story and thought about my son’s
situation, I knew whether we’re across the house or across the world, God knows
and sees any distress we’re in. And as we face a new year, it’s good to
know God is able to send help, even if sometimes, he has to use a cat as a
messenger.
“In all their distress he too was distressed, and the angel
of his presence saved them. In his love and mercy he redeemed them; he lifted
them up and carried them all the days of old” (Isaiah 63:9).