Do You Hear What I Hear?

The relentless chiming roused me from a deep sleep. As I struggled to awareness, I leapt from my bed in alarm to summon a nurse. It was then I realized I was not in the hospital room, but in the hotel room where it was my turn to sleep in a bed. It was the chime of the elevator that had awakened me, not the sound of a medical alert. I wasn’t scheduled to return for “my shift” for several hours, but I couldn’t shake the urgency to check on my sister.

The cancer center was a hub of activity 24/7 and as I entered her small room, it seemed like a bee hive with several nurses working, a family member demanding more help and a very agitated patient in agonizing pain. I began to pray fervently under my breath, taking authority over the situation and speaking peace to the storm. I’ll never forget how dramatically the atmosphere changed. I knew that I had been summoned to her room by a loving God who needed an emissary that night.

That was more than 10 years ago and the colo-rectal cancer that nearly took her life is gone. The aftermath of radical surgery and radiation still causes problems. She’s in the hospital again right now, which has brought back memories of the hard road she’s travelled.

The remarkable reality of “God in us” was dramatically illustrated to me that night in that hospital room. “For God who said “Let light shine out of darkness”, made his light shine in our hearts, to give us the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us.” (2 Cor. 4:6-7)

As the world grows darker, His light will shine brighter and brighter. I hear the insistent ringing of those chimes again, awakening me to shine and be light and hope right where I am.

Thanks for your prayers for my sister.