Day Nine

Each night, that I am home, we tuck the girls in and I read from a "little princess" bible and we talk about the topic. What I find amazing is that although the topic is for little girls, I find that I'm being spoken to as well. Tonight's topic was "God is everywhere". You may be following these updates on a daily basis or maybe this is the first time you have clicked on a note and followed this far. So with that being said, please let me give you an update as if you were family. My brother is currently being cared for at Borgess Hospital in Kalamazoo, MI. He has been in critical care for 9 days. His injuries amount to many but most important is the one he endured to his head. I have received a variety of information that has taken me, a normal person, and my family on a roller-coster of emotions. With that being said, I have good news for you tonight. Brad, my brother, has had an encouraging day battling giants. Although he has many hurdles to jump over , today he did a couple things that suggest that he may be able to "make it around the track"! This morning he had purposeful motion with his eyes. This suggests that his brain is responding and his pupils are functioning properly. His ICP's (brain swelling levels) were down and at normal levels today. This is a significantly good thing. Our prayer is that this will stay consistent so that they may remove the brain monitor and be able to proceed with a MRI. They did reinsert his chest tube due to some fluid on the lungs, but this is to be expected when someone has gone through the trauma that Bradley has! Still all this makes me think. It challenges me to slow down and intentionally recognize that God IS everywhere! I can fully and rightfully take in the facts and ingest the bitter medical facts... or I can seek out the God in things. Tonight I will, at all costs, look for God in all things. Why? Because He has promised that He is everywhere. Being a "Big Brother" I feel responsible to say that I think that this is my job! Being everywhere that is. Defending the weak, cheering for the underdog, and being the voice for those that have no voice. But who comes to rescue the "Big Brother"? Who comes to rescue the mom who worries for her child? Who comes to rescue the little girl that is scared of the dark? Who can be everywhere at all times? Well tonight, because of a tiny pink-colored bible, I'm reminded that God is everywhere and in everything! He is in the sky that we take for granted, the time that we have been entrusted with, the people that we encounter during our daily routines, and the moonlight that shares the cosmos with the sun. This is a Big God. This is one that is everywhere. But He is only in what we chose to see. We can deny His existence. We can believe that life ends here. We can deny that children and birth are a miracle. We can believe that our circumstances are a coincidence. But I will be brutally honest! Maybe you are reading this and having trouble believing in a God that large? I thoroughly understand. It's unreasonable and unpredictable. But everyday I seem to be granted another day to live, wisdom suggests something irrational. That there is something more powerful than me or my talents and abilities. Maybe even more importantly at this moment is that there is a possibility that someone like Bradley, with the prognosis that he has, may very well at any instant turn into a miracle. Something none of us can answer. And the difficulty with denying a miracle is that I've seen them happen. When my parents divorced and I thought my mother would not survive, she picked up three jobs and she did! When I watched a family struggle through divorce and think the children would never forgive the parents, they did! When I watched a family lose their child and wonder if they could move on and love again, I witnessed them adopt a child and change the life of someone who had no life to begin with! When I watched a couple who were unable to have children for 19 years and were utterly hopeless about having a child of their own, I witnessed them give their announcement of being pregnant not once but twice against all odds. So when does faith outweigh reason? When we accept that God IS everywhere! He is in the color of the trees that we pass. The laughter of the child in the overcrowded store. The appointment that you'd rather skip. He is in every opportunity if you see opportunity. So tonight we see opportunity for Brad and I see opportunity for you. Be intentional to see God everyday in the small, unappreciated things. It may just change your everything!