Not-So-Perfect Timing

     I think I figured out why I have been looking back searching for God’s answers and for His timing. It’s about Patsy. My wonderful friend died one year ago today and I am still struggling with the realtiy of it. I miss her and I am still asking why? Why can’t she be here with us? My heart is aching for her family.

     I know there are questions we will never have answered to our satisfaction until we are in heaven. I do know, that like my brother, Patsy found faith in Jesus. For about two years before her death she searched out some questions of her own.  She told me she finally understood. We will be together again one day soon.

     But the reality is here and now. She was the instigator, the adventurer, the mega shopper in our group. She was the one that had us visiting a graveyard in the dark after hearing a sensational news story set in a small town near where we were staying. We peeked in the windows of an Amish schoolhouse and gave an Amish boy a ride as he searched for his runaway horse. She bought the giant birdhouse that barely fit in the minivan. It took up all of the space from front to back and from ceiling to the tops of the seats so the passenger side could not communicate or see the driver’s side! What should have been a four-hour trip to visit a friend took eleven hours. Patsy was driving and, of course, we stopped in every shop in every small town along the way.

     So many memories over the last thirty-five years involve Patsy.  She was always there for good times, bad times and everything in between. She got in there and lived through it all with her friends. I miss her. I still need her. I want her here.

     And so, we grieve for her with the questions unanswered. God knows the answers. He will help us get through it all. And He listens to our cries.

Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress, and He hears my voice.  Psalm 55:17

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.  Psalm 147:3

Dear Jesus,

We don’t understand. We cry to You. Would you comfort each of us in grief today? Heal our broken hearts. Bind up our wounds. Hear our voices.

Amen