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It was a Sunday morning and I was busy running to and fro in the church building answering to the beck and call of a half dozen people. Steve, Sue and the kids had just returned from Minnesota where they had attended Steve’s mother’s funeral. I wanted to express my sympathy, especially since Steve had just lost his father a little over a year previous. I couldn’t even imagine losing a parent. I shuddered at the thought.
The hall was jammed with people, chatting after service, making lunch plans. I saw the back of Sue’s head in the distance and headed in that direction. I was in luck. They were picking up the kids from their classes. I would be able to see all of them without hunting them down.
Sue turned to face me. Her right eye was swollen shut.
“What happened?” I gasped.
“The doctors say it’s a brain tumor. I’m going in for surgery Tuesday.”
I was stunned. She’d only been gone ten days. We’d been garage sale-ing the Saturday before they had left and I had to talk her out of buying me a couch. Looking at Steve, or “Mr. Positive” I was sure I’d find reassurance and confirmation that Sue must be exaggerating. Instead, I found a slight nod and a pained glance.
“Tell your parents that I love them,” she said.
“Sue, you can tell them yourself when you’re better,” I forced a smile.
She paused, “And talk to my kids about me.”
Tears tumbled down my cheeks, “Don’t talk like that, Sue. You’ll be just fine.”
She hugged me, and that’s all I can remember.
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journeytoepiphany.wordpress.com 
Things can happen so fast. Can we pray in the past tense?
You are sweet. Thanks for reading.
This makes me tear up, I remember visiting Sue in the hospital after that, all you can do is pray and you can never really come up with the “right” words to say….
Those kinds of situations demand that we are selfless, don’t they? Because our flesh would love to avoid them at all cost! And yet we find ourselves, doing the hard things, standing beside hospital beds, the empty graves of children and hurting people. Let us decrease so that He may increase.
Sometimes prayer means listening. Sometimes the best thing is to let the silence be filled by someone else.
So true.
Oh wow. Words fail. Just… (shaking head, stunned)
God has a story full of grace and mercy in all of our lives. To quote Ann Voskamp, “All is grace.”
So sad. Did she die in surgery? You will continue?
I will continue…God’s story is always full of grace.