Saturday, January 18, 2014

God I need a hug.


I woke up that morning with an overwhelming sense of sadness. It was one of the lowest points in my life. What on earth had happened and how on earth did it happen? I had no answers.

I’ve never actually thought of it this way before but from the time I received Jesus in my life until this point my experience could have been described as a “Cinderella Salvation.” I didn’t just get saved; I got Blessed with a capital B. My life was one blessing, one miracle, and one testimony of God’s goodness after another. Sure, I experienced some rough times but my hope in the Lord never waned. 

But now I felt so weak. I remember pleading to the Lord one day on my way to work to please hold on to me because I didn’t know if I could hold on to Him. There really wasn’t anywhere to turn. Everything I had believed in was shaken. I was discouraged, disappointed and dismayed by the things happening around me.

On top of my life support system (spiritually speaking) failing by the day I was dealing with the death of my father from cancer. If that wasn’t enough my mom was recovering from a brain tumor the size of a softball. My parents were both diagnosed in the same week and I left for North Carolina. We had recently received notice that the house we were renting at the time had been sold and we had to move. Moving day was the same day I was leaving for North Carolina. I felt abandoned (not by God,) at a point when I desperately needed support.

So on this particular morning as I was talking to God on my to work as I usually do, I just simply said, “You know Lord, I just wish you could give me a hug.” It was just a simple prayer, no crying, no pleading, no if you don’t I can’t make it. Just simply, I could sure use a hug.

I forgot to mention that I was going through something else at this time. I was getting a lot of work done at the dentist. Now I don’t know about you but if you are like me that in itself is enough trauma. I had a great dentist but still it’s the dentist, if you know what I mean. They were always very kind knowing what I was going through with my parents. I had to call and put the work on hold telling them I would be going out of town and would reschedule when I returned. 

So back to story…I got to work and in the business of the day I forgot about my conversation with the Lord that morning. About mid morning the receptionist buzzed me to say I had a delivery at the front desk. Hmmm, I thought, wonder what it is? I wasn’t expecting anything and certainly not what was there. Sitting on the counter was one of the most gorgeous flower arrangements I’d ever seen. My first thought was that my hubby must have sent me flowers and my second thought was we can’t afford it. I thanked her and took them back to my desk before looking at the card. Imagine my surprise when I opened the card. It read, “We thought you might need a little encouragement today. Thinking of you. Dr. Batton and staff.”
I remember saying out loud…Dr. Batton! My dentist! My dentist office sent me flowers! My co-workers were looking at me kind of weird. I’m not sure what they were thinking but from the looks on their faces my guess would be they had never gotten flowers from their dentist either.

I sat the flowers on my desk. They were beautiful and smelled wonderful. Every time I looked at them it warmed my heart and it felt like…you guessed it! It felt like a little hug. And then the Lord spoke to my heart. You asked me for a hug today and I used your dentist to send one your way.

I don’t know what you are experiencing today. We all go through those times when we just need a little hug. I encourage you today to ask the Lord for one. He loves you and wants to reveal His love to you. It might come in an unusual way but it will come. There is always hope in God.

Psalm 86:17 Give me a sign of your goodness, that my enemies may see it and be put to shame, for you, Lord, have helped me and comforted me.