Three years ago, today, I stood in a hospital corridor, praying over this man. His nurse had called and said he was crashing and would likely be gone before I could get there. I did get there, and although he was in a coma, he was alive. Still, I wasn’t allowed to enter his room. Other than one quick FaceTime call, I hadn’t seen or touched my husband in exactly a month. Every part of me ached to be with him. For several hours, I cried out to God, quoted Scripture and sang quietly in that lonely hallway. No one disturbed me, but they wouldn’t break protocol for me, either.
But God… sent an angel of mercy. I think he was the hospital administrator, but honestly, it’s all a blur. What I do remember is that he gave me ten short—but glorious—minutes with Jeremy. Ten minutes to let him hear my voice and feel my touch. I have no idea what I said or how much he understood, but his numbers indicated that he knew I was there. Only in hindsight did I fully realize what a tender mercy those ten minutes were!
If you had told me on that day where I would be today, I could not have handled that information. It would have been too heavy for me to bear. Three years ago, I was believing for a miracle. I couldn’t even process any outcome other than the one I wanted. But that’s why God gives us new mercies every morning.
When God’s people wandered in the wilderness, He fed them with manna. Because He wanted them to fully depend on Him for their daily bread, He told them to only collect enough manna for the day. As was typical for them, some didn’t trust God to keep His end of the bargain, so they collected extra. The next morning, there was fresh manna for everyone else, but their leftover manna was rotten.
Manna, like mercy, is best served anew every morning.
I would definitely have borrowed tomorrow’s trouble if I had known God’s plan for Jeremy. But just as His mercy and grace were sufficient for that day, three years ago, so His mercy and grace have been sufficient every day since. Morning by morning by morning, new mercies I see.
I know your story is not exactly the same as mine, but we have the same God. He was faithful in the Bible, He was faithful three years ago, He is faithful today, and He will be faithful for all of our tomorrows.
I don’t know what tomorrow holds. It’s usually better that way. But I do know that my Father is already there, ready to extend all of the mercy I will need.
Great is His faithfulness!
10/07/24