When I was in Bible School, I vividly remember some things that happened during some of the classes. There were several funny incidents (which I may share later) but this one came to my mind today. My teacher had just read a verse that stated, "but God, who is rich in mercy..." and then he looked up and proclaimed with great feeling, "Oh, don't you just love that word 'but'!" Of course the worst of us heard "Don't you just love that word 'butt'!" and spent the remainder of the class time stifling giggles. And sometimes I think God uses those stupid little incidents to burn things into our minds because today that day came back to me and all I could think of was God and His great mercy. The verse goes like this:
Ephesians 2:3-6 - we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. 4 But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, 5 even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), 6 and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus...
And God truly is great in His mercy. This weekend I took Friday off to catch up on some errands and just get some rest. On Sunday morning my mom called and was on her way to the hospital where she stayed until midnight. At that time the hospital released her and I brought her home. I laid down beside her and it was then that she told me that the nurse had given her a double dose of her pain medicine. Consequently, her oxygen levels went low and each time she started to go to sleep the monitor would wake her up because she wasn't breathing properly. Keep in mind that she told me this after we arrived home and were laying in bed with NO monitors to alert us if she were breathing or not. My mother lay there talking and it was fine with me because I thought, "As long as she is talking, I know she is breathing." Then at some point she wound down, patted me on the shoulder and said, "Good night, Darlin'." Several times during the night I propped myself up on my elbow and watched for the rise and fall of her chest and strained my ears to hear if she was breathing. And several times she still was. And then sometime in the morning I woke up and berated myself for falling so deep into sleep. But God! In His great mercy, He kept her safe. Each time in the Bible when you see the words "But God" they come after a calamity that could have happened. And each time God stepped in and changed things around. I probably didn't even have to stay awake as much as I did, worrying and looking and listening. We had a rough couple of days but God in His great mercy brought us through it. And we are trusting that He will take us the rest of the way.
