Take my Hand

Two scenarios, both lessons in trust… one features a deep friendship— the other taking place in the doctor’s office. Our story begins at Mayo Clinic in February of last year. I was at the clinic to investigate some odd symptoms in the only eye I have vision. I was worried that something serious was happening and that in a worst case scenario, I would completely lose my vision. The doctor examined my eye, but he could find nothing wrong. Test after test continued to support this, but I wasn’t satisfied. I knew my eyes well, and this wasn’t normal. I wanted answers.
So when the doctor asked me if I would like to move forward with an ultrasound, I quickly agreed. The doctor seemed to think that my diagnosis would be severe dry-eye, but he figured the ultrasound would give me peace of mind that there wasn’t anything more serious going on. My sister sat beside me in the waiting room in the minutes leading up to the ultrasound. I was trying to get control of my emotions, but the panic kept rising to the surface. I just wanted a definitive diagnosis! I trusted the doctors, in theory, but this trust was sorely lacking at that moment.
Karla reached over and touched my hand, telling me some silly medical-themed joke. You see, she’s completing her degree in radiology right now, so hospitals are kind of her thing. Her presence brought me comfort in that moment. She was my sister; I trusted her.
The story continues in the following November. I had come through that frightening day at the clinic and I was now symptom-free. I was at the Wal-Mart with a good friend, and we were checking out at the registers. As we moved toward the exit, my friend began to search through her purse. For some reason she was unable to locate her keys. I’m not going to lie; I got a little nervous at that point. I have traveled with far too many people over the years who encounter issues along the way; either the car breaks down, there’s a flat tire, the keys get locked in the car, etc. “Please don’t let the keys be locked in the car,” I thought to myself. I was not looking forward to waiting for someone to come to our rescue. It was cold and I just wanted to go home.
But I had no cause to worry. In fact, I should have trusted my friend to a greater degree. After all, she had proven herself trustworthy in the past. She had always been on time when picking me up from my house. She had even taken me to my doctor appointments and been an encouragement in other difficult situations. I should have known she would not leave us stranded.
When we reached the van in the parking lot, the doors were unlocked, and the keys had been safely deposited on the back seat. We were just grateful that nothing else had happened. I found it restored my trust in small-town Wisconsin. Nothing was missing from the van and miraculously it was still sitting there.
As my friend took my arm and helped me across the ice so I could get into the van, I thought about the correlation between that day at the eye doctor and that dark night at the Wal-Mart. In both situations, I had been called upon to trust in someone. Although I was nervous about the ordeal with my friend’s keys, I found I trusted her more than the eye doctor. After all, I had known my friend longer than the doctor; we had developed a relationship. The same was true with my sister in the waiting room; even though my parents were nearby that day, I clung to my sister’s hand because her goofy medical humor gave me some perspective on what I was facing. God had sent her to be there that day to help me through that trial.
Lately, I have been processing this concept of “immeasurably more” from Ephesians 3. I think about how easy it is to cry out to Him when things go wrong. I know in my head that He has always been faithful and that He will carry me through, but for some reason, my heart hasn’t quite caught up with the knowledge I possess. I have to tell myself that He is trustworthy— that He will never leave me hanging when things seem dismal. It means that I need to invest in a deeper relationship with Him, for only them will I find the comfort and security that I need. He’s not some lofty Being up in the sky that simply watches over me; no, He is present and active in every aspect of my life. How can I not trust Him? He knows me better than I know myself— even better than my sister, my parents, and my dear key-displacing friend. He is faithful, trustworthy, and the greatest friend of all! And all the while, He holds my hand.