The last two months have been a whirlwind. Maybe more like a tornado. First, my dad was admitted to the hospital with liver stones. After an ultra sound, and then biopsy, the doctors detected metastic colon cancer in my dad’s liver. To complicate matters, he contracted a blood infection while in the hospital rendering him so weak he could barely push himself up in bed, and could only walk a few steps at a time with assistance.
Most of you know that my dad suffers from bipolar disorder, and my parents are separated. (You can read more of the history in this post.)
His living situation before getting (more) sick was a sad, lonely existence, renting a room in a house in Oceanside with random roommates coming in and out all the time, but with no real community. His daily routine, plagued by his clinical depression, included getting out of the house once a day to eat lunch at a local senior center. That’s it. No hobbies. No friends to visit with. He didn’t even watch TV. It was more of an existence than a life.
Without getting into all the specifics, a series of circumstances and events, prompted by his declining health, has made it possible for my dad to move into an independent/assisted living facility this past weekend. If I were to describe one or two of these circumstances/events to you, I could explain it away as coincidence or something else. But strung together, these things can only be told as a story that includes a heavy dose of divine intervention.
You might not believe that God works in such details, or maybe you don’t even believe in God. I am writing this for one reason only – because through prayer and friends, this has been shown true in my life, especially these past few weeks related to my dad:
I am convinced, now more than ever, that God sees us, He hears our cries, and He loves us more than we can imagine.
Within hours of my dad moving into his new home and beginning what truly is a new lease on life, he said something to me I’ll never forget. “I met a guy named Pete.” For the first time in many, many years, he had made a potential new friend. And though there will be lots of battles in the weeks and months ahead, especially related to fighting cancer, I am at peace knowing his living situation is one where he gets 3 meals a day, is surrounded by positive, caring staff, and has a group of peers he can potentially have community with.
You might be struggling with a situation right now that makes you think that God has forgotten you. You might be waiting for something you’ve been asking for for many months or even years. You might be in the middle of something you have no control over. I’ll say it again, because if it’s true for my life, it is also true for yours:
God sees you.
He hears your cries.
And he loves you more than you can imagine.