My husband and I have been so blessed with those of you who have shared how you had been praying for our recent trip to Arizona to visit with our son, Jeffrey. To hear how the family of our great God has been interceding for us means more than we can ever put in words.
To that end, here is a snippet on how our trip went.
As I wrote in A Romans 8:28 Mindset, we hadn’t seen him since Christmas of 2016 – because he decided he didn’t want to see us. Yet my husband and I had been missing him so much that we decided to drive to Arizona this year for our vacation so that we could spend some time with him. We just wanted to have fun, and let him know how much we love him.
Jeffrey knew we were coming way in advance, yet after we arrived in Arizona we received an email from him stating that he really didn’t want to see us, but if we were determined, we could come to see him after he and his “new family” got out of the movie theater one evening at 8 pm.
My heart started breaking once again. However my husband took control, and decided there was no way we were just going to see him for a few minutes at a movie theater after traveling all the way from Texas. So he went behind Jeffrey’s back and called his new caregivers directly to see if we could just come over to their home one afternoon.
We discovered that the new caregivers were strong Christians, and they warmly stated of course we could come by!
Unfortunately because of scheduling conflicts, we couldn’t go to over until the day before we were to leave, and ended up only having about 3 hours with him…
Yet stop! Please don’t be saddened, because the timing of our visit was totally providential – our great loving Father set it up perfectly.
Why?
Because upon arriving at their home, Jeffrey stated that he had wonderful news to share. The news was that just a few hours earlier that day a “friend” he had met on Facebook had told him that he wanted to donate to Jeffrey a substantial sum of money – just because he felt sorry for him after hearing of Jeffrey’s disabilities.
I won’t go into any specific detail, but suffice it to say that the outcome could have been catastrophical if we hadn’t gotten to see him that day, and at that particular time. If we had seen him earlier in the week, we probably would never have heard about this, and believe very strongly that something terrible could have happened to not only Jeffrey’s finances, but also potentially his identity itself. The threat was large and looming.
Our sweet son is so trusting of others (except for us, unfortunately). He’s actually very smart intellectually, but in looking for acceptance with others, he allows himself to be swayed by people who say they sympathize with him. This was a tough life lesson for him to learn, no doubt.
So in ending, yes my heart grieves that we didn’t get to spend more time with Jeffrey, yet my heart is so full with love for my Father who set up the timing perfectly.
It says in Isaiah 40:31 that when our hope and trust are in the Lord that He gives us renewed strength – allowing us to soar like eagles, and run and not get weary. That’s hard to remember on a daily basis, no doubt, but it’s really true. We just need to trust that He has our loved ones in His steady arms, and that He will provide exactly what they need – at just the right time.
Thank You, Father, for guiding and directing us daily. May our eyes remain firmly focused on You – through every hill and valley.
The God Of All Comfort 