Pastor’S Inspiration Comes As A Blessing

Sat., March 20, 1999

Susan Miller Coulee City, Wash.

Gratefully I sank into the church pew that clear windy April morning in 1988. My heart and mind were full of emotions, remembering the doctor’s words earlier that week when he told us our 11-year-old daughter would need to have surgery to remove an eye.

All week I had struggled to come to terms with his diagnosis - even though he had been preparing us for this surgery from his first examination of our daughter at age 3. Born without sight in her left eye, she had experienced no limitations as she grew from baby to toddler. She learned to ride a bicycle, roller skate, ice skate, ride her pony, swim - with everything she showed no fear, only spunk as she tried to keep up with her brother, who was three years older.

There in church, the doctor’s words kept ringing in my ears, asking when her eye had changed while his examination light shined on her eye, showing a milky opaque cataract. Weakly I answered I didn’t know; my untrained eyes did not notice any changes since her last appointment.

Briskly, he said the eye needed to come out; with a cataract and glaucoma, we couldn’t wait until she was older. Surgery would be scheduled during summer vacation after an examination at the University of Washington Hospital to rule out any other complications. After a six-week healing period, she would be fitted with an artificial eye.

But my mother’s mind and heart struggled with the whole idea of surgery, and I hoped I could make it through the church service without crying.

I glanced through the bulletin to see who would be filling the pulpit that Sunday, since we were once again without a pastor and in the process of searching for one. A retired minister who always had interesting and helpful sermons was scheduled, but with his soft monotone it was easy for me to drift away.

Forcing myself to focus on his opening words, I heard him say that he had prepared and finished his sermon early in the week but felt led not to use it. Instead, he felt directed to prepare another sermon based on a passage in Ecclesiastes which dealt with eyes and sight.

With those words my spirit was renewed. What an incredible feeling knowing that God has used this kindly gentle servant to bring me peace and knowledge that He would be in control of our daughter and her surgery. My fears were gone, and I felt only blessed relief.

Our daughter’s surgery was successful, and she adapted well to the artificial eye, made by a wonderful craftsman in Spokane. In May 1998 she graduated from Whitworth College with a degree in journalism and is employed as a staff writer at a newspaper in Lewis County.

I still marvel at the wonderful ways God works in our lives. How many people have had a sermon rewritten just for them in their time of need? This was a big and important moment in my journey of faith, and I am still grateful for it.

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