All Good is from God

This week I’ve been thinking a lot about a woman I met one stormy night this winter. This winter my husband spent some time in the hospital. Our family struggles with health issues so I’m used to prolonged hospital stays out of town.

I usually just sleep in the chair at the hospital during my husband’s stay, but the patients and staff members on the cardiology floor don’t favor a newborn spending the night. Our newest little one was 3 weeks old at the time so I kept her with me and at night as we slept on the couches of friends. Having a hubby in the hospital, caring for a newborn and tip-toeing around friend’s homes in the night becomes really stressful after week. I was living out of a stroller, and hopped up on postpartum hormones to boot. I’m a writer and I had a huge deadline and needed to pull an all-nighter to catch up on work. I was stressed, and tired and frankly, just in a really bad place. Did I mention the hormones?

My family members stepped in and told me I had lost all rational thought and needed to leave the hospital. I decided I couldn’t handle another night of tip-toeing around someone’s house with an infant so I treated myself to a hotel room. I began driving to my hotel and sure enough, a sleet storm made my drive the worst ending to the worst day. And then I went down the rabbit hole. You know, whatever that breaking point is where you toss your hands up and curse God, asking Him what the heck you ever did to him to treat you this way. Or maybe that’s just me? I through a 3-year-old style fit about how everyone else in my life has good things happen to them and for me it is just one emergency after the next.

I checked into the hotel with a tear streaked face, and a screaming infant. The lady at the front desk took one look at me and said, “I’m not allowed to do this, but you look like you need a break. I’m putting you in our best room, a suite with a desk and whirlpool – you just look like you need something good to happen to you.”

I had asked for God, and there he was. One prayer-filled soak in my in-room hot tub and I was ready to face life again. When bad things happen to us our first response is Why me? Or, Why do bad things happen to good people?

The question doesn’t have an answer, because it’s the wrong question. Instead, we should only ask why God allows good things to happen to us, fallen people. Why would God care so much about my hurting to place a beautiful and intuitive woman in my path just at the right time? What an act of love!

Everything good is from God. The rest is part of life, consequence of free-will and a call to become better people, so we may live in the absence of suffering some day in heaven.

But for now, in our earthly lives, our little, random, acts of kindness can make the biggest difference to someone in need of support, encouragement or faith. I think about this hotel worker every now and again and wonder if she knows how big of an impact she had on a hurting women one cold, storming night this winter.

Who has God sent to you at just the right time?