Occasionally I use some colored pencils to mark some things in my Bible. I don’t really take them with me because I figure that I can always just use a pen or at work I have colored pencils. Yesterday especially, with it being such a busy day going from one thing to the next to the next, there would have been no reason to need them at all. And yet, instead of leaving my colored pencils on the table I put them with my pens in my purse.
Fast forward about 10 hours, I’m sitting in an ICU waiting room visiting a dear friend and his family. Sharing the waiting room with us was a giggly little girl, McKayla (about 4 years old) and her anxious dad waiting the latest news of her mother, also in ICU. Besides the balloon she had likely insisted they get for her mom, she was without anything to play with or do. From comments of the people I was visiting it seemed they had been there a while and seemed they might remain for a while. At first she didn’t seem to mind… She completely lost it laughing at one point as she used the clip on the balloon to act like it was some kind of animal coming to ‘attack’ me.
Her giggles were a welcome, joyful presence in the room, but as time passed she was becoming increasingly restless. Enter: the colored pencils.
Taking the envelope back from the card I brought for those I was visiting (the only paper I could find)I walked over to give it and the pencils to the girl. Completely ignoring her dad and her grandma who had just entered the room, the girl was delighted and, again with a great smile and a few giggles, began drawing and drawing and drawing. I got back into conversation with the friends I was visiting and didn’t really pay attention to McKayla, though as I was leaving I noticed her dad had now gone in to be with her mom and McKayla was happily content on her grandma’s lap coloring away.
It just amazes me how God works in such little things in really tough situations. I don’t know exactly what’s going on with McKayla’s mom, but I know her presence brought joy to her family as well as those I was visiting (and me!). I don’t know why I had colored pencils in my purse yesterday, but God knew a little girl and her family in the ICU waiting room would be appreciative.
In big situations (like the kinds of things that cause people to be in ICU), we often look for God in the big miracles and prayers for complete healing. I hope that while I continue to pray for those big things in tough situations, that I never miss the little miracles that come along the way… miracles in the form of colored pencils, dog balloons, and little girl giggles.
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