An Unexpected Gift
We now have this light shining in our hearts, but we ourselves are like fragile clay jars containing this great treasure. This makes it clear that our great power is from God, not from ourselves. 2 Corinthians 4:7
The extraordinary beauty of life is that we don’t really know how our story will unravel before our eyes. Each day is just a chapter of a great and mysterious novel. We make our methodical move to the right and life brings us a sharp and unexpected turn to the left. If we knew the outcome of our path, we would become crippled with fear. In our paralysis, we wouldn’t be able to hear God’s whisper nor feel His comfort when He speaks “Do not be afraid.” If we knew of our impending tragedies and grief, we would never take the step to go outside. There would be no splendor of watching the sun slip past the horizon or the feeling of a summer’s wind as it caresses the face and tangles the hair. We’d flee from the tenderness of love’s kiss and the sweetness enveloped in the breath of new life. It is in our brokenness where God seeks us and sheds light so that we may be used to fulfill His purpose.
God has this unique and perfect way of bringing strangers together in the most unexpected of ways. He brings the unimaginable to life and molds it into something magnificent. Sometimes, His work is so mystifying and inexplicable that there is no other way to explain the circumstance other than to attribute it to Him. In November, Idaho resident Connie Welch didn’t know that her life was about to change. She took that step outside of her door; unaware of how God was going to use her. She set out on her 450 mile journey to attend her mother’s 95th birthday at the Mount Baker Care Center in Bellingham, Washington.
On the day of her mother’s birthday, there was an accident where Connie fell and broke her pelvis. In a moment’s notice, she literally became a broken vessel. She was hundreds of miles from home and was unable to return to Idaho until she had sufficiently healed. It was determined that the best place for her recovery was with her mother at the Mount Baker Care Facility.
There isn’t an in-house chaplain for this assisted living facility. Connie had been searching for someone to visit her mother, but to no avail. She didn’t know that her mother was only weeks away from passing. During her time at Mount Baker, she began to notice the subtleties of God’s presence at the facility despite the lack of a chaplain. As the nurse intern with the cross earrings entered Connie’s room, a conversation was ignited.
Bellingham has been referenced as the “hidden gem of the Pacific Northwest” and is nestled 80 miles north of Seattle. It also is home to Western Washington University that offers 160 academic programs to 15,000 students. Of those 15,000 students, Lindsey had entered Connie’s room on that day. When Connie asked her about her cross earrings, Lindsey told her of how she had given her life over to Christ and that she belongs to the Campus Christian Fellowship at WWU. Lindsey had been serving the elderly with the Fellowship and developed a huge heart for geriatric patients.
When Connie told her nurse with the pretty cross earrings about not being able to find a chaplain, Lindsey knew exactly where to turn. Lindsey’s pastor, Cameron Harris, had already established student teams with the Campus Christian Fellowship for the purpose of serving the elderly in Bellingham. Cameron asserts “We are called to serve the widows, orphans and the elderly.”
It wasn’t long until Cameron would come to visit Connie and to pray for her ailing mother. God opens doors so that the right people can step in at His precise and perfect moment. While visiting Connie and her mother at Mount Baker Care Facility, there literally was an open door to the office of the Social Work Director. This instance facilitated a dialogue and an opportunity for the Campus Christian Fellowship to begin serving at Mount Baker. It was a combination of an unfortunate accident and a simple conversation that would lead to a much grander scheme; broken vessels with a willingness to be used by God. In December, Campus Christian Fellowship was able to bring a choir to sing at Mount Baker. The Fellowship is in the final stages of protocol before they will be able to consistently serve at Mount Baker Care Facility.
We are the child playing in the sand at the beach; all we see before us is our bucket of water. Sometimes, our view is so limited and we are unable to grasp the bigger picture. We are unable to see the entire ocean in the background. After Connie returned home to Idaho, her beloved mother passed days later. Despite the unfortunate fall, Connie was given the most elusive and precious gift of all. The gift of time. There is no way to measure the value of time with a beloved person before they pass from this life to the next. How many of us have lost someone only to think “I wish I had more time.”
