During our quiet time with God yesterday morning, my husband Jim and I read the following:

I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the LORD
    in the land of the living. (Psalm 27:13)

In the margin of the Bible, was a date. It said, “11-25-2005.”

“What does that mean?” Jim asked, pointing to the notation in the margin.

“Wow!” I said, recalling how the the verse popped out at me when I wrote the date in the margin. It was a dark time. The day after Thanksgiving. My late husband Bill was in the hospital again. One of many in the past three months. I was filled with fear the medical community wouldn’t be able to help him. I’d just had a call from a family member, telling me an aunt had died. Would Bill be next? I was choked with fear.

It was early morning,  reading my Bible before leaving for the hospital when I read the above verse. My heart beat faster. This is it! I was  encouraged by the words, in the land of the living. We had been so discouraged. Bill had been there for nearly a week and no medication or procedure had helped his agonizing pain. Reading those words in the Psalms reminded me we would see goodness again. I couldn’t wait to get to the hospital to read the words to Bill, hoping he would be as encouraged as I was.

“Listen to this,” I said to him with excitement in my voice. “I believe you’re going to get better.” We continued to read together and all that day, the words resonated with me. Bill did improve. He was discharged from the hospital the next day.

There were more hard days, but the pain lessened. We had good family times in the next eight weeks. Those days   were full of “life” more so than the previous two months. And then, Bill died and entered eternity….

Fast forward a little more than four years, January 30, 2010. I was in the ICU waiting room, waiting for word from the neurosurgeon who’d examined my husband, Blair. We’d had a pleasant evening when all of a sudden, he had a sharp headache that came from nowhere. It was evident he needed medical attention and an ambulance rushed him to the hospital. My friend Connie was waiting with me in those very early morning hours. “Look at this,” she said. She’d picked up a Bible in the waiting room and read the verse:

I remain confident of this:
    I will see the goodness of the LORD
    in the land of the living.

Again, the same verse. It gave me a glimmer of hope as she read it out loud to me.I remembered the last time the verse had given me comfort.

Later that day, they gave little hope for Blair. He’d had a brain aneurysm. I didn’t understand. Thoughts swirled through my mind: Can’t I have Blair longer than seventeen months? I’ve lost a husband already, would I have to be a widow again? I paced the halls while I waited, hoping against hope–asking God to make him better. But that prayer was not answered the way I prayed. The next day, Blair died and passed into eternity…

Yesterday, we read those same words. It’s ten years later. We are in a trying time again. A time where we need encouragement. Our world is in a pandemic and it is frightening. We don’t know the future. It looks like this time of uncertainty will last longer than we expected. People are losing their jobs. The economy looks out of control. There is little for us to do but wait for things to open up and get better. Will it ever?

This morning I pondered what to write to encourage you, as well as myself, I read on to the next verse:

14 Wait for the LORD; be strong and take heart/and wait for the LORD.

We can take courage from these verses–those gems from the past. “Wait” is an active verb. Two times it says to wait. I’m a take action-sort-of-gal. If I can move, shake, or change my situation, I will try. In this case, though it says to wait.That’s what I’m going to do.

I love reading–and then finding the words–gems–again. They give me hope and courage. They say to wait for the LORD. Bill and Blair my late husbands know now about the “land of the living.” They put their trust in Jesus Christ, just as one of the thieves on the cross next to Jesus believed. Jesus told the thief, “Today, you will be with me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). They are with him too…..

Heavenly Father, please help us as we wait for you. You are the our stronghold. Our deliverer. We can trust you with our future. Help us be strong and wait on you. In the strong name of Jesus, Amen.