"Momma said there'd be days like this..."

Last Friday, I found myself singing that line quite a few times. I looked it up on youtube and discovered that it was originally song by The Shirelles. Their version has something to do with meeting a boy and how things go from there. My version is quite different.

Here's what happened to me last Friday.

I went out with my sweet little doggie for her morning walk. As she did her "poopy dance," an older gentleman who lives around the corner from us walked down his driveway and put a letter in his mailbox. Then he came across the street and struck up a conversation with me. He asked me why I cut my hair. I said, "Because I had kanswer." He clapped his two wrinkled hands to his cheeks, dropped his bottom jaw, and exclaimed, "Noooo. I'm so sorry to hear that." He asked a few more questions and expressed clear joy that I'm on the mend.

Then he proceded to tell me that he had had open heart surgery back in February. Five arteries were almost completely clogged. He spent two and a half weeks in the hospital and is now on the mend. I told him I was glad to hear that.

As our chat wound down, he took my hand in his and said, "I'm going to pray for you." I told him that I would pray for him and that we'd be praying for each other.

I walked home from that encounter thanking God for those tender moments shared with that very kind gentleman. I have prayed for him often since Friday. I don't even know his name, nor does he know mine. But over the past few years, we have seen each other often as we are out on our morning walks and have spoken several times. Now I have yet another reason to look forward to seeing him in the future.

I came home, showered, and got dressed to go meet two friends for lunch. Two women that I met at a local senior living community where I have taught several Bible studies in the past four or five years invited me to join them for lunch. Ever since they found out that I had kanswer, they have faithfully sent emails and asked how I was doing. They told me they had spread the word with the folks there and that many people were praying for my healing.

When I arrived for lunch, they informed me that they had invited another woman to join us - which was fine, of course. We got our food and sat down at the table to eat. After we gave God thanks for the meal, the woman who coordinated the lunch told me that there was something she wanted to read to me.

First she told this story: A few years ago, she began to use the Jesus Calling devotional book - it consists of daily readings and Scripture passages. At the start of 2012, she began the Jesus Calling journal, a book that was given to her as a gift. As she worked her way through the devotional for a second time, she wrote a response to the readings and tied them to the events of her day. Now in 2013, she is rereading the devotional and the journal to review the lessons she learned in 2012.

How amazing is it that when she read her entry for June 14th, which was last Friday, she discovered that on that same day in 2012, I had been at their morning Bible study talking about forgiveness? So on the morning of our lunch date in 2013, she read about my presence there exactly one year earlier and about what she was learning about that difficult topic.

Those are the moments when I get goose bumps. When I think about all the things that had to happen to make that moment possible, I shudder: she had to read the book in 2011 and 2012, write faithfully in the journal, reread the journal this year, and read it last Friday morning. I was diagnosed kanswer. I went through months of grueling treatments. I took my time with healing and recovery before making the date with them for lunch. And have it all come together on that day. That specific day. What a day!

Which brings me back to that first line in that song: "Momma said there'd be days like this."
My Sweet Momma Jesus said, "I am with you. I see you. I need you to know that I love you and that I'm making things happen in your life that you cannot explain. Life will not always be easy. It's not always going to be fun. But sometimes it will be easy and fun. Sometimes there will be days like this, days of tenderness, caring, coincidences, and beauty. Some days I will show up in the face of an old man who noticed that you cut your hair. Some days I will show up in the journal entry of a woman who cares for you more than you realized. Pay attention. You'll see; there will be many more days like this."

I am grateful for days like that.
And days like this.
Speak, Momma. Your daughter is listening.