BY STILL WATERS

BY STILL WATERS             COPYRIGHT Frances K. Van Mil

Some people think of life’s opportune happenings as coincidence.  I prefer to relate them to the hand of God.

For instance;

Coincidence #1:

            My husband and I had just moved to Elliot Lake, leaving our two children out west, just two days after our daughter’s high school graduation.  Although I know we had to plan for our retirement and allow our children to go on with their lives, I went through all the sadness and grieving of a double empty nest experience.

            One morning, I awoke at the unaccustomed hour of 5 am. Restless, I pushed on the television set.  Could this be real?  There was my beautiful daughter talking about her college.

            Seeing her, if only for a few seconds, brought healing to a mother’s aching heart.

            This was the only time our daughter was ever on television, and I had stumbled upon the program right when I needed it.

            Coincidence?  You decide.  I’ve already voted on God’s side.

Coincidence #2:

My mother was going blind.  Visiting us at the Cape Croker Reserve where we were living and working, she mentioned plaintively.

“What I miss are the stars.”

She and my father had built their dream home in the Campbellville area and had enjoyed the delights of country life: storms racing across the valley; red-winged blackbirds “talking” over the rail fence; leisurely morning coffee on a grassy terrace; and, …yes, the stars, so clearly visible away from city street lights.  Now, my father had passed away, and Mother, unable to live alone in the country with such poor vision, had had to move to a Hamilton apartment.

We went for a walk the night of her visit to Cape Croker.

It was quite noticeable:  That night, as never before or since, the stars looked as big as golf balls, seeming to bounce and shimmer extra-brightly.  My mother was able to have one more glimpse of them before returning to her apartment.

            I cannot prove it, but I will always believe that the God Who answers prayer, the One Who created and understands each one of us, wanted to reassure my aging mother  that He cared about her and would always be with her, and He used the stars to do it.