Monday Magnificat ~ I Gave My Book Away - part one

Last Wednesday I was on my way from Florida to Colorado to stay with One Fine Man until he could be released from the hospital to return home.

Throughout the terrible ordeal of the injury and accompanying the boys back home Sunday, I kept telling God that I wanted HIM to be glorified in the circumstances. Accidents happen. People get hurt. Or sick. Or worse. But I believe that we can offer up times like these as an opportunity for God to redeem the circumstances for HIS purposes.

In no way do I want to minimize the trauma, the surgery, nor the recovery process that One Fine Man has faced and is still dealing with. He is on continued bedrest with his leg elevated. He is taking Percoset every 2 hours and has to inject Lovenox in his belly once a day (to prevent blood clots).

Heavy on his mind are the responsiblities of supporting our family and all of the things he normally does for our household for which he is now relying on me. Impatient Me! Today my job was to make phone calls to find an orthopedic surgeon who has expertise in skin grafts and the kind of trauma One Fine Man sustained to his leg.

I am delaying my return to my teaching job for another week to wait on him and, hopefully, drive him to an appointment for follow-up care and physical therapy.

As I said, I do not minimize what One Fine Man is going through but I know that in any situation, if we are teachable, God will reveal His heart to us. I am learning.

While on the first leg of my flight from Tampa to Atlanta, I was reading this book. (My BFF, Alisa, posted about the book here.)

I was sitting in an exit row and during the initial descent one of the flight attendants sat in the jump seat opposite me. A few minutes passed, and she asked me if the book I was reading was good. I said yes.

She said, "I was just asking God a question and looked over at your book. I got the answer from the back cover."

So I passed the book to her so she could take a closer look. She looked through it for a little while with a serious expression. She asked me what church I attended and handed back the book.

I found my place to read again. But I couldn't read it because I started to think maybe I should give her my book. I had about 1/3 of it to go and I really wanted to finish it then reread it. I said to God, "I'm willing to give her the book. Are you asking me to give it to her or did I just think it might be a good idea? Because I'm willing but I don't really know if you are directing me to do that." Plainly I heard these words, "If you give it to her, I'll make it up to you."

No more questions.

I removed my boarding pass serving as my bookmark and wrote my name and blog address on the inside. We landed and she opened the door for passengers to depart. I was the first one out but not before handing her the book. Smiling, she thanked me. I prayed that God would speak to her through the book and draw her closer to Him.

For the next few days the words, "I'll make it up to you," echoed through my mind. Hours would pass and then those words...

To be honest, I don't know if they came at all during what I referred to as the day of despondency in my post entitled Do It Anyway. From the vantage point of a few days since then, I believe that I was under spiritual attack that day. Thank God for the TRUTH of His WORD that can bypass emotion and intellect and go straight to the spirit of His child.

But today, the words came again..."I'll make it up to you."

In a most surprising way, while sitting in the parking lot of Publix ~

He did.

Part Two to follow...

My Monday Magnificat? He makes the wilderness a pool of water (Isaiah 41:18). For this I utter my praise.

Magnificat ~ an utterance of praise from the Latin magnificare ~ to magnify