Ramble On

Today I awoke and remembered some folks.

I thought of a mother who most likely didn't have a good night's sleep, awakening every night at 2am to check on her baby girl, who is 8 now but her baby still (as she always will be) and who is fighting diabetes. In the wee hours of the morning a blood sugar reading will dictate if there will be any more sleep that night. To her I say, keep heart, your baby will be fine because God's grace is made manifest in weakness, and though she is weak now she will be strong soon because every night, at 2am, she witnesses her mother's strength and she is learning.

I thought of all the couples at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit at Huntington Hospital in Pasadena who have taken turns by their babies incubator and by the phone (because it's always one or the other, trust me). I think of their tiny preemies and the prayers these parents have offered up, all night long, in total fear, helpless but not without hope. To them I say, listen for God, somewhere between the buzzing of the sleep apnea monitors and the soft murmur of your babies breathing, you will hear Him...whispering blessings as he makes his rounds alongside the doctors and the nurses.

I thought of my newly single friend who's wife recently left him. He's raising his six year old son mostly on his own now, much as my Dad raised me, and I know most of his day's are filled with a father's love and concern for his child mixed with a detached sort of wonder at whether or not he, himself, will ever find love again. To him I say, you will buddy. Give it time. And remember, for what it's worth, my Dad had girlfriends as the years went by and he still insisted until the day he died that the greatest love he ever had was the one he shared with me. I was 30 when he told me that, but still his little boy (as I always will be).

Oh yeah, and then there's you. Today I awoke and thought of you, too. I said a prayer for you. Because I may have no idea what challenges you're facing today, but I sure wasn't going to let you face them without feeling at least one prayer, like a soft breeze, at your back. To you I say, ramble on.