"For there is not a word in my tongue, but lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether." (Ps. 139:4)
How confused I remember being that time after my senior year in high school! Too confused for words. I had hid behind the woodshed of the house in Okinawa then and wanted to cry out to God: "Why?" And God had quietly answered me then to trust His Love. It seems that never changes. Now, decades later, my often weary, broken, needing-refreshment heart hears: "Trust MY Love."
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| Early Mornings, July 2016 |
The Lord gave me ten sweet days in Okinawa. One of the last things I found myself doing was sharing my testimony about a time a few years later I couldn't understand why I had to stay ill with a borderline hypothyroid condition on the island, why it was taking so long to get better. I had had to leave college in the U.S. because of my health situation. At that time, the hospital in Okinawa was not equipped to test my blood for the condition, so my blood had to be drawn and mailed to mainland Japan to be tested, results mailed back, and the right medication was searched for in the same way. Needless to say, the entire procedure took a long, long time. For a young person who wanted to train to return to the field as a missionary, this delay seemed to make no sense, and I challenged the wisdom of God. But the scriptural admonition was clear: "lean
not to your own understanding." (Prov. 3:5)
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| View from Paul & Janice's Weekly Rental Apartment |
Imagine how I marveled at God's lovingkindness when I later learned that my mother had had
stage four cancer, and passed away several months later. God had known I--the most fragile runt of the litter--had needed to be with her during her last year and a half on this earth. He had touched my body, picked me up from university studies, and plopped me down on the island then kept away all the medical technology that would allow me to leave the place any sooner than I needed. And he had allowed me to rant and rave, not realizing what was going on inside her body. Since then, I know I have often found myself begging God not to listen to me. And I know He won't...any more than what's good for me.
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| Daughters Reiko, Toshie, me, Joyce, Kuniko |
For ten sweet days God let me drink in reminders of
His utter goodness. My sister Janice and husband Paul let me stay with them in their rented vacation home from which I could walk to the beach every morning for a date with me and the Lord. I was able to have a wonderful time of reunion with my best friend from elementary days. Over the weekend, we had a blessed fellowship over barbecue with old friends and new acquaintances. We were able to make contact with girls my sisters and I had grown up with, the daughters of our Dad's first convert. We were able to make several visits to the nursing home where Dad lived, and on my last day in Okinawa, we visited another one. Daddy's friend, Zeke, who visited him in the hospital had had open heart surgery, and his wife was in this last nursing home--I wanted to see her before returning to Iwatsuki, and was glad we got to do so.
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| with Zeke's wife at Nursing Home |
So much happens when I go down to Okinawa. I didn't even mention the picture museum my Dad made the house into or the Christian who was facing opposition from the family. That will come in following posts.
And I didn't mention that although because of my back problems and my x-ray in 2000, I hadn't been swimming, Daddy prayed that if God would will it, He would touch my body...
He did will so;
He did touch my body,
and...
I have begun swimming again.
