“Hi, come on in,” we were greeted by our friend as we entered his wife’s hospital room. We had waited until Howard got home from work to visit the patient, one of our church members, and although it was after dark and frigid out, my husband had insisted we call on her this evening. Following us in the door, though, were several physical therapists and medical workers, so we barely got to say hello before we had to go into the hall, accompanied by her husband.
“I just wanted to read Mary a scripture,” Howard said, “we won’t stay long. It’s out of Isaiah, and I felt the Lord impressed me to encourage her with it,” he said, quoting the reference to the passage.
“That sounds like the scripture my pastor read to me when I got fired from my job,” Bill reflected. Howard knew the job he was referring to, since they had worked there together many years ago, but the incident happened much later.
“They fired you?!!” he exclaimed. Then Bill told the story familiar to us, but Howard must have forgotten that detail. When he drove a truck for a motor freight line, Bill had had a bad accident, due to a damaged roadway, where he narrowly escaped with his life after the truck caught fire. Trapped in the cab, he saw God miraculously allow the windshield to pop out with the little pressure he could apply with his burned hands.
“Yeah, it lasted about four days,” Bill went on, “the lawyer said I could own that trucking company if I wanted to, but I told him all I wanted was my hospital bills paid. I got my job back.”
Presently we were allowed to go back into the room, and Howard began to read from Isaiah 43. Verse 2 says, “When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee. (3) For I am the Lord thy God…”
Then he read Isaiah 41:10 about being held up by God’s right hand of righteousness. Verse 11 continues, “Behold, all they that were incensed against thee shall be ashamed and confounded: they shall be as nothing; and they that strive with thee shall perish.”
“That’s it! That’s it!” Bill exclaimed, “That’s the one my pastor read to me!”
Then Howard went on to read verse 12: “Thou shalt seek them, and shalt not find them, even them that contended with thee: they that war against thee shall be as nothing, and as a thing of nought.” I had to chime in then that the trucking company no longer exists!
I had to remind the men to let the patient rest when they got lost in reminiscing about former work associates, and whatever happened to this one or that one. We went out into the cold night, warmed by compassion shared, fellowship, and scriptures read that had ministered two-fold to the hearers.
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