Perfect Timing

     God’s timing is perfect. The unanswerable questions, the unanswered prayer, the unanswered hope can be placed in the Almighty hands of the omniscient One, the One with the everlasting answers.

   

     Have you been praying for something or for someone for a long time? Is there a family member in trouble? God understands when and if we will be ready for an answer or more importantly, when we will be ready to accept Him.

     My brother, Jim, was 22 years my senior. We had the same parents and there were no siblings between us. Yes, my mom thought I was a tumor! They wanted more children, but really, 22 years later?! Luckily for me, once the diagnosis became a pregnancy rather than a tumor, they were delighted.

     My brother suffered from a deep depression off and on for most of his life. He could not imagine a loving God in this dark world of his. He tried to commit suicide several times. Over the last fifteen years of his life he suffered from a debilitating neurological disorder with no given name. It was “Parkinson-like.” It began in his toes and made its way slowly in upward motion until his body was in a frozen state, with curled toes and fingers eventually moving to his face and to affect his swallowing.

     And God knew the time was right. A few years before his death, he connected with the motorcycle-riding chaplain at the nursing home where he resided. The hymns of old at the Sunday services made him cry tears that had never been shed. A friend he had not seen in decades heard about him and motored down the avenues in her wheelchair with a Bible in hand. An amazing coincidence; she now lived just a few blocks from the nursing home.

     Coincidence? No, it was God placing the right people at just the right time around my brother. And one beautiful fall day, on his wife’s birthday, he met us in his wheelchair, with his frozen body and his halted speech and said, “I have met Jesus. I am saved.”

     This story still brings me to tears, every time, over a decade later. We often feel responsible for saving our families don’t we? We wonder what we can say. We say too much or preach too much until they are pushed away rather than moving closer. We forget that God knows. He places the pieces around us in miraculous ways at the perfect time when the eyes of our hearts are finally opened.

     My brother had complete joy and peace and humor for those last years of his life. Amazingly enough they were some of the best of his life as he got ready for heaven. His testimony spoke to others about the transforming love of Christ. Jesus gave my brother, and He offers all of us, the peace that passes all understanding.

     Do you need to trust His timing in your life? Trust Him with the answers. Trust Him with the questions. The miracle may be just around the corner.

Then my soul will rejoice in the Lord and delight in His salvation. Psalm 35:9

Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit to sustain me.  Psalm 51:12

Dear Lord,

I thank you again for what you did in my brother’s life. Amazing grace. Amazing love. Amazing God.

In Jesus name,

Amen