A "God-Thing"

     I've been pondering the term "God-Thing" since I used it in yesterday's post.  I realize that not everyone is familiar with that term.  I realize that not everyone would agree with that term.

I also realize that the older I get, the more I see "God-Things" in my life.  I also realize that the older I get, the more I look back on my life and see "God-Things" that I didn't recognize at the time.

This picture, my friends and readers, is a picture of a 100%, total, without-question "GOD-THING": ---- my family:

     OK, I'm pausing to go grab a box of Kleenex, which might be fair warning to some of you.

     First, let me give you my definition of a "God-Thing" (and I'll use myself as examples, writing "me", rather than a generic "you" or "people"):  it is an event (usually;  sometimes it can be a feeling or an action)  that can only be explained as God entering into my life and making a difference.  Another picture of it that I see is God's hand, reaching down from Heaven, and touching my life --- stopping something, starting something, making me aware of something --- that I would otherwise have never noticed.  

     There are times in my life, when I was (and will) be going on my merry way, living, working, loving, playing ..... just doing what I do, and I have no doubt that God stopped time, reached down and touched something or someone one in a way that would get my undivided attention.  

     If you've ever seen the TV show, "Heroes" and you've seen one of the characters, Hiro, stop time and then walk around the people are who frozen around him, that's kind of how I picture it.  There was a time when Hiro saved a child's life by stopping time and then moving that child out of the way of an oncoming car.  He's saved several people by doing that.  

I know .... it sounds weird, but that's the most clear way for me to describe "God-Things".

     Many people describe these things as "coincidences".  I don't believe in that word and my heart feels sad for those who do.  

     One of the biggest "God-Things" in my life was Jim.  

  

     Jim and I met the spring semester of our junior year at Oklahoma State (go Cowboys!).  I was dating someone else at the time we met in a speech class.  I noticed him right away, he always had his long legs stuck out under his desk so that I had to walk over them.  He was tall, dark and kind of cute.  The first time he gave a speech I loved his deep voice.  He sounded very, very intelligent and I liked that.  But the funny thing was, since I was dating someone at the time, the only thought I really had was that I thought he'd be interesting to have a conversation with.  I didn't look at him as a romantic interest, but as someone who would be interesting to know.

     Anyway, my history with the male species ALWAYS went like this:  meet, become interested, go out, become a little more interested, start dating, have fun, guy says something like, "I really like you" ..... or God forbid-- the all-time kiss of death ..... "I think I love you.", and then I'd break it off.  Always.

     My mom once told me that she never worried about me getting my heart broken, she worried about the hearts of the guys I dated.  And she was right.  I wasn't kind when I heard those words.  I didn't know how to break up other than to run scared.  

     Well, when Jim and I finally started dating (the end of that spring semester) our relationship did NOT follow that pattern.  At all.

     In fact, he was a jerk.  Now, this is not a secret .... if he were here he would agree.  I have no idea why he was a jerk and I have no idea why I put up with it ..... except for this ..... it was a "God-Thing".  God wanted us together and God knew that if Jim ran after me I would bolt. 

 

   Now don't worry ..... he wasn't a jerk for very long ..... just long enough, evidently, to keep me interested.  

     One night we had "the talk" ..... you know the one.  

The one where the girl (usually) sits down with the guy and says, "Where do you see this relationship going?".  We both agreed that we didn't want to get serious and that it was OK to date other people.  And then Jim was shocked when I told him that I was dating someone else .... in fact, a couple of someone elses.  Guess he only "thought" that he thought it was OK.

     The next day ..... the very next day ..... the "jerk" was gone and the man I would marry was in his place.  And he pursued me like crazy.  He became a completely different person.  A "God-Thing", because had he not, I would have been gone.

  

     My "plan" (for several years) was to graduate, go to New York or California and try to act.  I had never had an interest in getting married before the age of 30.  I never had much of an interest in having children.  I thought that one day, I might have one ...... two if I really had to.

That was my plan.

     God stopped time and reached down, pulled Jim's long legs out from underneath his desk so that I'd have to step over him ........ and the rest is history.

     We married a year after we graduated.  We decided that we would wait a year and then think about when to have a baby.  I was now thinking I'd let him have two ..... even though he had once said something about 4 or 5 (which I think made me laugh hysterically and tell him he'd be lucky to get one).

     We decided to go off birth control a few months before we would attempt to get pregnant because that's what the doctor said would be best.

     God stopped time, reached down and made me the most fertile woman in America.

     And so we had Daughter #1 9 months later.

And God stopped time, reached down and touched my heart, my mind and my soul and made me fall in love with this little girl and with being a mother.

     And so I went from wanting "maybe one" child ...... to having 6.  Not at all my plan ..... not Jim's plan, but totally God's.

     So when you look at the people in that picture up there, you can see a little piece of God in each face.  God planned each of us ..... and for each of us.

     I could write a book on the "God-Things" that have happened in our lives over the last 28 years.  There are WAY too many to mention here.  

Way.

     But the latest one was this ugly tumor in my hip.  A very, very large "God-Thing".

     I have no idea how long the tumor was there.  I know that is was there in July 2008, when I had a CT scan because of a kidney stone, but no one noticed it.  No one pointed it out ...... still not sure why that is, but there ya go.

     Fast forward to San Diego, December 31st, last year.  I had spent the night throwing up, thinking I had food poisoning.  Once everyone was up and about that morning I realized it wasn't food poisoning, so it must just be a bug (and yes, I believe God reached down and touched my body and made me feel ill).

     I am not one to drop everything and run to the doctor.  In fact, I usually put off going to see a doctor until it's a bit late in the game.  I try to explain things away and just push on.  So when my sister-in-law mentioned going to see her doctor I told her no.  I didn't think it was anything serious and didn't want to go, especially to an unknown doctor in an unknown city.

  

      Then I started to feel worse and I started to have a fever (yes again .... God reached down).  And I wondered whether it might be another kidney stone.  This worried my sister-in-law, who kept trying to convince me to go to the doctor.  I kept saying no, and that I'd be fine until I got home and would call my doctor.

And then God stopped time, reached down and touched my brain.

     And suddenly---- out of the blue and very much against my nature ---- I said, "Oh, OK.  Call your doctor's office and see if they have an opening.  I'm sure they won't because it's New Year's Eve day".  

And I believe that God again stopped time, reached down into that appointment book, and made a space for me.

     And so I went in.  

The doctor thought (after God reached down) that I had appendicitis and ordered at CT scan.  He thought I might have to wait to have the scan .... maybe several hours at a hospital several miles away because it was a holiday.  And God reached down again and made an immediate opening in the schedule in that building.

And so I had a CT scan.

And I did not have appendicitis, ...... but oh, by the way ...... in a totally unrelated matter .... I did have a tumor.

So the fact that this tumor was found --- when there was no reason to find it --- in a 100% God-Thing.

And the fact that the surgeon agreed to remove it, in spite of thinking it wasn't that big of a problem, is a 100% God-Thing.

Because it was a huge problem that was only going to get bigger and bigger and may, in reality, have killed me one day.

But God stopped time, reached down, touched several people's minds to make things happen, and said ....... "Not yet."

I don't know why .... except that He's not done with me yet.  

There are many, many days when I wish that He was, but evidently He doesn't agree.

So the bottom line is this ...... I should, by all human reasoning, still have a tumor growing in my hip, blissfully unaware of it's existence.

But I do not ...... because God stopped time and reached down.

Because God performed what can only be described (at least by me) as a 100%, TOTAL, WITHOUT-QUESTION ........

..... God-Thing.