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| The following is a letter which I sent out to my friends and family in 2006 telling the story of God's creativity in letting me know how much He loves me even through the sorrows of life:
"The Lord has been faithful to our family and especially to me during this past year. As I drove home from the hospital after my dad's death in 1998, I breathed a prayer asking God to show me reassurance that He was real and that my dad and all of us who believed and committed our lives to Him would really inherit eternal life. I remember adding to my prayer that He did not have to show me right then or even within the year, but I would be watching for His hand of reassurance during my day to day life.
This past year, God answered this prayer with methods that He knew were unique to my character and which could only turn my eyes toward Him. You see, as many of you know, I am an accountant by training and I chose this profession because I really enjoy math and working with numbers. In addition, I inherited some of my dad's interest in statistics (his college degree) and I appreciate the statisitical odds of events happening. Throughout the Bible, God has demonstrated His use of numbers and timing of events to prove the accuracy and truthfulness of the Bible so that we may choose to believe and follow Him. He therefore chose this method to reveal His hand and control of the events in my life through this past year and did so in such a manner that I will have no choice but to remember for the rest of my life. I hope as I share these very special thoughts from my heart that you, too, will be assured of God's hand in your daily life.
God began His plan of preparing my heart for trusting Him in June 2003. My lifetime dream from childhood was to own a pure bred Golden Retriever dog and my dream was realized after I was married and my husband bought me a puppy for my wedding present. I named him "Odi" which was backwards for "I Do" in recognition of our marriage. Without elaborating, he was our pride and joy and quickly became like a family member since we did not have any children. On June 25, 2003, Odi suddenly went into convulsions and we did not get him to the veterinarian in time. Needless to say, we were stunned and yet this was God's first preparatory step as would later be revealed. I will always remember Odi's final day because it coincided with my Aunt's birthday. God was revealing that we each have a day of birth and a day of death and our life time choices determine our destination on that final day.
Life progressed smoothly for the next months until on March 11, 2004, I received a phone call from my sister-in-law relaying that my brother, Greg, had suddenly collapsed at work and that the paramedics were not able to revive him. I can still hear her words, "Devra, it was terminal." I shook the cobwebs out of my head as the words sunk in and I held my mother in my arms on the way to the hospital as she mourned the loss of her son. The timing of my brother's death was not without meaning. You see, my birthday was the day before on March 10th. The significance was clear as I comforted my mother with the future memories that we would have of celebrating my physical birth on March 10th and Greg's spiritural birth into God's kingdom on March 11th. We knew that Greg had chosen to trust Jesus as his Savior and therefore He was now spending eternity with Him.
The next couple of months were filled with continuing family issues. I underwent surgery of the female variety and was cared for wonderfully by my mother and husband. My grandma suffered a stroke just prior to her 101st birthday and on Sunday, May 16th, my mother requested that I drive her to see her mother as my mother just felt the leading of the Lord that the timing was critical. My mother did not know why, but she knew that it was God's still small voice nudging her. My grandma could not communicate by speech after her stroke, but she attempted to through her loving smile. When we arrived, my mother spent our visit singing hymns to her mother, holding her, and telling her how much she was thankful for her and loved her. We left after about three hours for what would me my mother's last visit with her mother. God prompted my mother's heart to visit on that Sunday because He knew that only three days later, my mother herself would suffer a large stroke on May 19, 2004 and the two of them would never be able to visit in person again.
Even through this event, God was revealing His timing and control. You see, May 18, 1970, I committed my life to God and I have celebrated this day as my spiritual birghday every year since. Even my mother would celebrate as she would send me a birthday card. God was once again tying together significant dates to remind me that He would be faithful to me even though He allowed sorrows into my life after my commitment to Him.
On Memorial Day, May 30, 2004, (less than two weeks later), my grandma passed away. By this time, God was grabbing my attention. The obvious correlation of the dates of "remembering" my grandma on Memorial Day would seem to be enough, but not on God's calendar. You see, May 31st is the anniversary day of my husband's and my first date which is why we chose the next day, June 1st, to be our wedding day. The spiritual application of these three days interwoven together can only be accomplished by God because they represent the exact pattern of life for His children. First, we must die to ourselves (just as we remember on Memorial Day those who died). Second, we must choose Jesus as our Savior and live in a relationship with Him here on earth (just as I chose to accept my husband's proposal of marriage). And third, we look forward to that day with Him when we will celebrate what the Bible calls, "The Marriage Feast of the Lamb" (just as my husband and I chose to celebrate our relationship with the commitment of marriage).
Months sped by as I cared for my mother after her stroke. She was a joy and a constant reminder of God's faithfulness. She was completely bedridden and had the motor skills of a three year old, but she was able to communicate although her words were many times slurred. As March approached, I sensed God preparing my heart as I knew the anniversary of significant days were quickly approaching and memories of the prior year were still fresh. March 10th, my birthday, found my mother in the hospital where she kidded that the location was the appropriate place to celebrate the memories of my birth. My heart was tender because March 11th was the first anniversary of my brother's death and this was the day that God chose to reveal through the doctors that my mother's condition of liver failure was terminal. I prayed to God for His strength, as I placed the most difficult phone call of my life to my sister-in-law that evening and yet there was a quiet peace surrounding my heart. God was whispering, "My timing is perfect" and continued to weave His timing around significant dates in my life as He raised my mother up to Himself on March 14, 2005. You see, I was baptized in the Jordan River on March 13, 1973. Just as baptism represents our being changed from our old life of sin to our new life with Jesus as our Lord, my mother was raised from her old earthly body to her new heavenly body to spend eternity with God. And with a smile on His face, I'm sure, God even provided a visiting hospice nurse to annound the "offical" time of death at 3:10 p.m., the exact date of my birthday!
As if all of the above "date" associations were insufficient to reassure me of God's love through the sorrows that I was facing, He had one final evidence for me to ponder. You see, during our time of caring for my mother, my husband and I would tease that God had finally provided us with a little one to care for. After my surgery the prior March, along with my advancing age, God had begun to make it clear that we would most likely not be blessed with a family of our own. And yet God allowed me to spend the months after my mother's stroke to care for her in a manner in which I might have cared for my own child. God blessed me with a brief span of time to experience motherhood. We brought my mother home from the hospital on June 16th and nine months later, almost to the day, God determined in His wisdom that I had carried my mother to term and she was now ready to be born into His Kingdom.
For two months I have attempted to write these thought and each time that I sat down, my mind has been blank as to how to express them. Even though you will not read this until a later date, I sit today and write this on the one year anniversary of my mother's stroke, May 19th. The cycle is complete and God chose today to allow the words to flow (and in my mother's honor ... I have let them flow in abundance ... she would have chuckled at my novel as it would have been just her style!!!) As I continue on in life, I know that I will have doubts about God and His allowing difficult circumstances in my life. And yet God gives each of us times, events, and memories to look back on to help remind us of His constant love. Within the Bible, He points back to creation, the flood, the rainbow, the Passover, the Exodus, the virgin birth, the crucifixion, and the resurrection. And even with all of these given to us as reminders, He adds to them by working within each of our lives to demonstrate His care. We just need to watch and listen! As He directs us in His Word, "Be still, and know that I am God.""
Written by Devra Robledo
©Copyright 2006 Used by Permission
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