Finding purpose

"Why am I here!" I was completely  frustrated. I had felt compelled to take my children to the Mall that morning to have their pictures taken. I was aggravated to find when I arrived that the photography studio was flooded.  I walked up and down the Mall pushing the stroller with one hand and holding my five year old with the other hand. All the while praying," Lord, why did you bring me here?"

My daughter wanted a drink but in the process of pushing the stroller, holding her hand, and juggling the cup, the cup fell. I was so frustrated I started to cry. Suddenly a young man came up to help me. When we were settled in a booth he said,"I know how it is, my Mother has been crying a lot too. My brother is in the hospital with a broken neck." He went to bring her to talk to me and I thought,"I am not going to tell him I was crying over a stilt drink."

I found out they were new Christians. She was from out of state and in her hurry to get to her son she had failed to bring the clothing she needed. I told her I would come to the hospital the next day with something she could wear.

At the hospital I found her in a room filled with men. Her son had been at a Christian boy's home when he fell. The men in the room were kind but I felt their message was wrong. They were telling her that now that she was a Christian she shouldn't cry because if anything happened to her son he would go to Heaven. Her son had accepted Jesus as his savior and I too believed he would go to Heaven if he died,but that didn't eliminate her grief. I put my arm around her and wept with her. I told her that the Bible tells us there is a time to cry and that Jesus Himself wept.

God imported me into her story that day. Every time she went to be with her son I went with her. I watched as she lovingly stroked his face. I listened as she remembered his childhood. I wept as she uncovered his feet and kissed them.

Time passed.  My husband was taking me for a ride in the country. I have no sense of direction, so he likes to ask me,"Sarah, do you know where you are?", usually I don't know, however this day was different. I told him to pull over and stop the car. In front of us was a Boy's Home.  I had never seen it before but I felt sure that it was the same place where the young man had been when he fell and broke his neck. Suddenly I realized it was the one year anniversary of his death. I prayed all day for his mother and family.  The next week I got a letter from his mother.  It said," Today is the anniversary of my son's death. It has been really hard, but God assured me you were praying and it helped" I wrote her back and  told her I was.

Lord Jesus, help me to look for you in every day events. I want to seek you with all my heart. Show me how to find ways to serve you and find purpose in the ordinary daily happens of my life.