Hi RITAN family, just wanted to share an answer to prayer. We will never understand God's timing, as the hour seems exremely late, but He has a reason, and I rest peacefully in that.
I need to give a little background info so you understand the answer to prayer...
When my oldest child was 5, in the summer before he would start kindergarten, he had a life threatening reaction to vaccines. In hindsight, his body was reacting his whole life, but when he was 5, the boosters were the final straw.
So, during this time that we were leaving the outcome of this battle in God's hands, the doctors were unable to find a drug that would stop and/or reverse this reaction. See, his immune system, rather than recognizing the viruses in the vaccines as the enemy, instead turned on the bloodcells that his body was trying to make, or cells that were already existing and killing them. We spent 3 very intense months in prayer, fasting, prayer some more, fasting some more, you get the picture! One life saving measure the doctors needed to perform was to remove his spleen, as it was holding onto all the cells that were dieing and was overextended and in danger of rupturing.
However, my son's physical condition was poor,...,very poor and the chance of him surviving the surgery was less than 10 percent. He was a yellow skinned, bloated belly little boy! We knew going into surgery that that may be the last we have with him. I sang Jesus Loves Me to him as they wheeled him away. One of the nurses that was in the OR with him reported to us as frequently as she could.
At the end of the surgery our precious son was alive! It would be many years and 2 real miracles before we could finally say we could put all ofthis in the past.
Fast forward 9 years, he's 14 and we are homeschooling. I am trying to show my son and his brother how to play the piano and read music and they just are not cooperating with me, so I enroll them in a music class through our local school district. The second night of the classes, when I go to pick them up, the teacher meets me out in the hall way and jokingly asks me if I signed my son up as a joke. I said, "oh no, is he THAT bad?". He said, "NO! listen!" And my son was playing this classical piece on the piano..
So through a friend, I found him a piano teacher who just happened to be a child prodigy himself, his name was Orlando Otey. You can google him. He went home to be with the lord last year. Up until now, my son would play at home on our not so expensive lap held keyboard. So we needed to find him a piano! I took the need to God. He knew what we had money wise to spend, so I let him lead the way. We went to many music stores in search of the perfect instrument for dear son. None were working out.
One day I see an add in our local paper with a picture of piano in the add. My spirit JUMPED, so high! I just knew we needed to go see this one ASAP. Of couse the usual stresses got in the way, DH was late getting home from work, someone else was coming to look at the piano that night also, so on and so on. We finally get there to look at it..WARNING: GET YOUR TISSUES! The woman that owned the piano was the nurse that was with my son in surgery that day. She had (unknown to us then) held his hand. Now, any musician knows that an instument isn't just an instrument. It's a PART of them...and when my son sat down and played on this piano...it was meant for him. We had only a certain amount of money we could spend, and even then we scraped it together. She told us she had consulted with a certain piano store about how much to ask, but she felt she needed to ask a certain amount, the exact money we had to spend!
So he studied under Mr. Otey for 3 years, but the man did everyhting in his power to discourage my son from any kind of playing beyond personal pleasure. He didn't even encourage him to at least try to play in church! So imagine my mother's heart, my dismay that my son would put such a gift from God on a shelf. But that's what he did. For 9 years.
Fast forward to a week ago. He's 24 now. All these years I have prayed that his health would be good and that he would find a way to honor God with this musical gift he was given, and to be mentored and/or have a good christian friend base.
He is currently going back to college for an accountant degree, but needs a part-time job for some cash, all the while living in his own house and mostly on investments he's made along the way.
But back to the job search - so he goes into a local music store, puts in an application. They ask, of course if he has any musical experience and plays for them.
They hire him on the spot. Not only that, but they are a christian couple that own the store, with a recording studio.
I've been in thier store before and listened to their christian worship sessions! Just awesome. Ok, so you can guess the rest.
My son (if God tarries) is FINALLY in a place this mother can sigh a sigh of relief! Just don't throw anything at me for saying if God tarries, since I know how badly we want to be raptured! Like I prefaced this with, we don't know God's timing for things, and if nothing else, God has re-invigorated my faith for these last final moments!
Love,
Margie
