Seeing is Believing, But Some Are Blind

 

I wrote recently of a woman I know who is dying.  Since then, she has gotten much worse.  To make a long story short, through a large number of “coincidences” she is now in an in-patient hospice facility, where she is getting the 24/7 care she needs.  She will not die alone.  I know many people would look at the stream of just-at-the-right-time, just-in-the-right-place circumstances and say “Boy, was she lucky.”  I’ve said before that I don’t believe in coincidences, nor in luck.  I believe there is a God, and He does answer our prayers.

Sometimes God does answer our specific prayer immediately, just as we asked.  That is rare, but it has happened, even to me.  The Surrender Novena addresses this, where it notes that often we pray asking God to do something specifically.  The Novena says that praying like that is like the child going to the doctor and saying “here’s what you need to do to heal me.”  The child is not a doctor, and does not know exactly what is wrong with him, nor exactly what are the options for healing, yet often that is how we pray, telling God what we want Him to do. 

As I watched my friend grow weaker, I did have thoughts of healing, and I did have thoughts of helping her to bear the pains, and I did have thoughts of: just take her quickly.  But those weren’t my overt, reflective prayers to God.  My prayers are now consistent, for God’s mercy on our country, those He brings into my life, and me.  Like the Surrender Novena concludes, my prayer effectively is: “Jesus, take care of everything!”  And I try to, in my heart, trust, as in the Divine Mercy Prayer: “Jesus, I trust in You.”  That was and is my prayer for my friend.

Whether you want to say God answered my prayer, or someone else’s, or that He just acted out of love for His little child, it doesn’t matter.  I know God did make circumstances occur which resulted in her being loved.  I thank Him.  She thanks Him.

I know there are increasing numbers of young people who no longer believe in God, nor pray.  To them, everything IS just coincidences.  There were many people like that in Jesus’ time, those who saw the miracles yet still didn’t believe.  My prayer includes them too, and God loves them too.  Perhaps a good “coincidence” will happen when they need it.  Maybe, but I’ve seen prayers answered, and would rather trust in a God I can’t see than wait for a “maybe”.