When the phone rang

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 If you're unfamiliar with what cowboys do, let me explain to you that riding horses is just part of it.  There are fences to mend, gates to hang, hay to be loaded.  The term for loading hay onto a truck is "bucking hay", and I had just finished helping some friends buck some hay out a field and transport it to their own field.  We were getting ready to head home and that's when the phone rang.

On the other end, my son, distraught, told me he thought his mom was dead.  His cousin had come to her house to find her laying on the floor unresponsive.  Less than 12 hours later, we were on plane back to Utah, where my son was going to have to deal with the passing of his mother and the resolution of her affairs in a week's time.

I've had some time to process all of the events that led up to her passing and as it is with most things in life, it's hard to see in a moment, God's hand in things, but looking back, I was able to see how God prepared things to be in place so that when she passed, we were able to respond quickly and how God ensured my son had he finances available to him to take care of his mother's arrangements and to settle some of her affairs.  

God is faithful and throughout this tragedy He has been so good to us.  There are still many things, mostly feelings, that my kids need to work through over the loss of their mother.  But one thing I noticed but didn't process until one day last week is something I'd like to share with you today.  It's said that you can tell what's important to someone by what's hanging on their refrigerator and what's in their checkbook register.  It escaped me in the moment, but looking back I remember my son throwing a refrigerator magnet out.  I thought it was unusually large.  It was a likeness of Jesus (probably not a bit accurate, but still...).

One of the lingering questions I have is that I wonder how Julie ultimately responded to the invitation to accept Christ as Savior.  I won't know that this side of glory with any certainty.  But thinking about what was hanging on her refrigerator, God has left me with something I otherwise wouldn't have had which is this....

A small amount of hope.


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