God’s Ways

By Anne Johnson –

I ran to find the ringing phone and breathlessly answered. “Hey sweetie,” my mom said. “Is Matt home?” It was an odd question. My husband Matt and my mother get along well, but in the ten years we had been married, she had never called to talk to him.

“Yeah, why?” I asked.

“I want to talk to both of you,” she said.

We continued our conversation as I searched around the house for Matt. When I couldn’t find him inside, I headed to the garden. “Here he is,” I declared, “playing in the dirt.”

Matt looked up from the row he was weeding. “What’s up?”

“My mom wants to talk to both of us.”

I put the phone on speaker, “Okay Mom, we’re both here.”

I heard my mom clear her throat before she started. “I just received news from the doctor. He found a cancerous lump in my breast. I need to have surgery and radiation soon.”

My eyes teared. I felt Matt’s arms encircle me. Leaning against him I found the strength to ask my mom the myriad of questions that rolled like a tumbleweed through my mind. We talked for a while.

That night Matt and I discussed my mom’s condition. The next morning I called and invited her to come and do her radiation and recuperating at my house. Apparently, she had thoroughly talked the situation over with my dad and older sister. They had discussed many options, and reasoned that mom should go to Seattle and stay with my older sister, Maria.

I attempted to persuade my mom to change her mind, “Maria’s not a nurse,” I said.

“No, but you have two small children,” Mom replied.

“Maria has two kids,” I countered.

“They aren’t toddlers.”

“But…” I tried to protest.

“Sweetie, are you really worried about where I’ll be, or about the fact that I have cancer?” Mom asked.

I felt like a cyclone had sucked all the air out of my lungs. My chest hurt, and no words could escape. I bawled.

“Annie,” Mom said softly, “God’s ways are different than ours. I don’t like that I have cancer either, but we must have faith and trust God.”

“I know.”

“Listen, I really think that being in Seattle is the right thing. Everything is going to be okay,” Mom stated.

Her confidence and faith strengthened me. After I hung up, I grabbed my Bible and found the scripture in Isaiah 55:8 that my mom had referenced. I prayed that God would grant me His peace and assurance, and that through this His perfect way would be revealed. Seven years later, when Maria lost her husband to bladder cancer, my niece and nephew turned to my mom for support. If she hadn’t spent those three months with my sister, the deep connection between grandma and grandchildren wouldn’t have happened.

God didn’t cause these events, but through them His good and perfect will shone through. In the middle of the battle it is hard to see the path ahead, but knowing God’s ways are best, I find strength to face life’s challenges.