Tender Mercies

This last week has been hard. I had surgery at the same time my husband scheduled to carpet our entire house. It was not a fun week. When I needed to be resting, I was trying to move stuff around and hurt my knee--again.

But now that most of the work is over and my knee is starting to feel a bit better, I'm thinking about the tender mercies that have happened. My husband's back, shoulder, and foot have not hurt him--amazing! Lately, he has a lot of issues with those parts of his body, and it's nothing short of a miracle that he's not in excruciating pain.

And our children and their spouses have come to our rescue every time we've needed help. What a blessing! We've known our share of heartache in our family--much more than we ever imagined--but our children have been so kind to rescue us from a furniture-moving nightmare.

Whenever little miracles like this occur, I like to call them tender mercies. A friend shows up at just the right time. Sometime calls when you feel overwhelmed with life. Someone comes to help you just when you needed him. (And your husband's health issues resolve so that he can do some herculean work.) These aren't coincidences.

So tonight amid some tears of gratitude I thank God for watching over us--even when we have created our own mini-crisis of sorts.

When I was caring for my dying mother, one of her home health nurses told me that her mother loved monarch butterflies. She and her mom had a "thing" about these beautiful creatures. They admired them and talked about them. A lot.

She said right after her mother died, a huge monarch butterfly flew in front of the window and hovered there for longer than most butterflies ever hover. The nurse told me she knew it was her mother's way of saying "I love you" and "I'm okay."

God shows His love to us in many ways. A glorious world with its myriad creations. The kindness of strangers. And tender mercies--however and whenever they appear. Thank God for His goodness and for his unexpected--and often undeserved--tender mercies.

© Carol Brown