The Lord’s Hand

Like many of us, Nathan has had a hard week. Online learning is all good and fine for calculus and U.S. history, but things like choir and ASL don’t work as well digitally and as those classes are the highlights of his days, his current routine is lacking its normal perks. In addition, my very social 16-year-old is physically cut off from his peers. He’s been messaging pretty much non-stop, but nothing can really replace face to face interactions. Even though he doesn’t have any really close friends at school right now and in spite of the fact that he gets extraordinarily tired of all the social drama, the isolation is still tough. He had planned a movie and snack day with a friend for yesterday afternoon, but on Friday evening he discovered that another of his friends had close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 and as he started exploring who saw who and when before there were symptoms, he felt like he had better just call it off. As his mother I completely supported that decision, but it was yet another disappointment in a week full of them.

Last night Kevin and I talked with him at length, trying to help him find some focus, some light, some good in his current situation. One of the things that has been helpful to me has been to focus every day on at least one way I can see the Lord’s hand in my life. It reminds me to look for the good and to be grateful for the many blessings I receive each day, even on days that are hard. I mentioned that to Nathan as a way to help him focus on the light rather than the dark and it was one of those days when he really struggled to see it.

One of his extra big stressors this week has been the fact that his best friend, Tate, is currently serving a mission in the Philippines. Earlier this week, it was announced that the Philippines would be closing their borders in response to COVID-19. They gave 72 hours’ notice and immediately the church began to work to get the missionaries out of the country before they couldn’t leave. Nathan had reached out to his friend’s mother, but when he didn’t get any response, he felt like it was not the time to bug her. Smart kid, right? Anyway, not knowing anything about Tate has been very difficult for him. He’s worried. He’s been worried about Daniel all week as well.

Late this afternoon, Nathan opened the Facebook app, which is something he rarely does. He’s more likely to be on Instagram since that is where all his friends are. It just so happened that one of his friends had reposted a picture that has kind of gone viral on Facebook. It was originally posted by a Delta airlines employee. Delta airlines sent six planes and their crews are currently working forty hours straight to get a group of about 1100 missionaries out of the Philippines. That employee posted a picture of a few of the missionaries in one of the planes and of all the planes and all the hundreds of missionaries in each of multiple cabins on every plane, Tate is right in the center of the picture. My first reaction (after tearing up, of course) was to ask Nathan, “Can you see the Lord’s hand in your life?” The answer, of course, was yes. The picture had been posted approximately seven hours before and since it is a fourteen-hour flight, Tate was about halfway home at that time.

The Lord knows our needs. He knows our worries and concerns. He knows how to succor us. He knows that my 16-year old needed to know that his best friend was safe.

So yes, I’ve seen the Lord’s hand in my life today. Have you?