Six Years Later - All Things Worked For Good...

...To Those Who Love Him

Six years ago, the first weekend of December provided an early Christmas gift for Oklahoma State fans. That Bedlam game, as my dad said, “went our way.” Our entire family found ourselves together in Stillwater -just not at the Boone.

Instead, we were in Mother’s hospital room at Stillwater Medical Center. For the third time within a four months, we had traveled to the emergency room. The first visit culminated with Mother’s gall bladder surgery in August. The second time on Labor Day weekend resulted in symptoms subsiding and a return trip to the Big Bend.

This third trip involved a five-day hospital stay for Mother due to a blockage. Finally, Dr. Cara Pence, Mother’s doctor, released her but noted the ultrasound showed a dark place. She encouraged Mother to celebrate Christmas and ring in the New Year. She advised scheduling an appointment for early January.

Christmas Eve came in a quiet, serene manner that Saturday night. Our Christmas Eve family tradition comprised a reading of the Christmas story from Luke 2 and then exchanging our gifts - but not in 2011. Instead, Mother, Dad, and I listened to a Thunder basketball game and then read the Luke 2 Christmas account. Later I played Christmas carols on the dulcimer. The next day, we celebrated Christmas Day quietly by attending worship services that Sunday. During the month of December, we had no family celebration since Angie had a severe case of pneumonia. Only Ben’s attentive medical care kept her from being hospitalized.

My parents, Edmund and Bernyce Smith Gates - Christmas 2011

                In mid-January, we learned the dark place on Mother’s ultrasound was a mass indicating a malignancy. She received a confirmation of this initial diagnosis during the appointment with her surgeon in February. Both doctors recommended surgery, adamantly stating the early discovery of her malignancy before any symptoms were presented meant only surgery would be required.

                Even though we began the year with a fire causing the total loss of Dad’s barn on New Year’s Day, he was not hurt nor was his beloved vintage pickup. Even though Angie’s slow recovery prevented us from sharing our belated Christmas together until January, but we had a delightful time together although our celebration was almost two weeks late. Even though our biggest hurdle came in early March with Dad’s first stroke, he quickly became known as one of the hardest working patients for his therapists. Finally, while Dad completed his last week of rehabilitation, Mother had surgery. She was declared cancer free and remains so as of the posting of this blog post.

                This family remembrance illustrates the meaning of Romans 8:28 – And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Six years ago, this week, our family wondered why Mother was experiencing multiple health problems. Yet the difficult week in December that invaded Mother’s life in 2011, now is recalled as a gift from God to redirect her attention to a health concern that would otherwise have gone for months or even years unnoticed.

                Ella Wheeler Cox, an American poet born in the mid-1800s, crafted a poem entitled Whatever Is – Is Best. The final stanza is below –

I know there are no errors,

In the great Eternal plan,

And all things work together

For the final good of man.

And I know when my soul speeds onward,

In its grand Eternal quest,

I shall say as I look back earthward,

Whatever is – is best.

(The Best Loved Poems of the American People, 1936)

                May God give us hearts full of faith and implicit trust in Him, knowing He is in control of what happens to those who love Him. In times of cloudy uncertainty may we seek His gift of grace to trust Him in the overcast when the horizon is unseen, knowing full well Jesus is the light in the dark moments. With our eyes on Him, may  we continue following Him, not for what we might receive, but out of our love for Him.