May 31, 2014

Keep your head up; keep moving forward. That’s good advice–sometimes, but sometimes it is also good to look back–see where you came from, and what shaped you into who you are today. Look back, and see what the Lord has done in your life.

In “Family Stories for God’s Glory” you will find the forward look as well as the rear-view situations. In a future blog we will talk about the forward look, but today I want to focus on what happened in the past. We will find happy moments and sad moments. We will see how God was with you in all kinds of moments. Often we don’t recognize Him or understand what He is doing. It’s a happy thing when you have an “Ah-Ha” moment and realize what was happening. Sometimes though, we may never figure it out. That’s when we choose to believe that God is the loving, caring God He says He is, and our trust-level roots grow a little deeper.

Here is one of my rear-view stories, (not in the book, as it happened after the book was written.) On a wet, near-dusk, chilly, evening, I was walking our dog–too hurriedly. Jumping upon a sidewalk curb, I caught my foot and sprawled face-down on the concrete. Miraculously, my glasses didn’t break, but I could not see out of my left eye. Thinking it was blood on my glasses, I took them off. Still, no sight. A dear friend who saw me fall helped me to my apartment. It was past office hours, so I didn’t call the doctor. I went to bed thinking it would be all clear by morning. It wasn’t. I saw my eye doctor that morning and he couldn’t see inside my eye any better than I could see out–there was too much blood. He referred me to a retina specialist.

The retina specialist confirmed that my retina was not torn, but it would take some time for my vision to clear up. “But you have blood behind your right eye as well,” he informed me.

“Wow,” I exclaimed. “I must have hit hard!”

“No, this has nothing to do with your fall,” he explained. “You have wet macular degeneration in your right eye.” That was a shock! Then he proceeded to tell me that the sooner we start treatment, the better it is. The treatment? A shot in the eye. Another shock, but well, okay, I mean, what else can you do in a situation like that?

Now for the rear-view scene. Had I not fallen, the macular degeneration would probably not have been discovered until it was much more advanced. God was there, not causing me to fall, but using it to reveal a problem I didn’t even know I had. He had a plan and was watching over me.

Here’s hoping you will look back and find how much God loved you in times when you thought your pain had no purpose.

Blessings to you,

Charlotte