Hindsight:
understanding of a situation or event only after it has happened or developed.
Hindsight is a really incredible thing. In my life, hindsight has always strengthened my faith. Some times, hindsight is not always "20/20" for me. While on other occasions it is as clear as could be.
As most know, just recently I had an emergency appendectomy. I wrote a little post about it here , and the support and love I received was so encouraging. But, I really want to share the full story with you all.
The surgery itself is not what I want to tell you more about, it is the hindsight that needs to be shared.
We found out on a Friday that Clark would be receiving a couple random days off the following week. For those of you that know the lifestyle of minor league baseball, you understand how rare this is. Clark is always at the field. Right now, it's from 5 AM - 3:00 PM. So when we heard he would get some days off, we started planning all we could go do.
We started planning a small trip to San Diego for a few days.
Then, Clark had an small idea that he may be moving to Ohio soon... so we thought maybe we could drive to Ohio together those off days and fly Clark back. (Otherwise, I would be driving by myself since Clark has to fly with the team)
As the weekend came and the first off day begun, we had settled that we were going to drive to a lake about an hour away and camp out for a night.
I don't really know what kept us from tackling Ohio or San Diego, but for some reason we both just had a feeling that maybe we should stay somewhere closer to relax instead of exploring.
The morning of his first off day, I wasn't feeling too hot. I didn't think much of it because:
1. I am rarely sick. Truly, never.
2. We paid off our credit card debt that day, lol, so you can imagine I may have been just feeling a little nauseous due to the sum exiting our bank account. (I know someone else out there feels the same with this one)
The next day, we were supposed to wake up and head to the lake. Well, I woke up and was not about to head anywhere. I had some rough tummy pain and laid on the couch all day long. We were both upset we missed out on our anticipated lake day.
Then, I woke up the following morning feeling so much better. After about two hours of finishing some work, the pain hit me. I rushed to wake Clark and we headed to the hospital.
Within 6 hours of being at the hospital they had decided I had appendicitis and would be going into surgery ASAP. Yay, for me! I have never had surgery, even been inside a hospital for any cause, and to top it all off...I have never even given blood. Nothing more than a finger prick for me.
You would think that I would have lost it and been so anxious, but it was the opposite.
The Lord gave me such a peace, it scared Clark a little bit. I was just at ease. I kept hearing him say, "I have you. Look at all I've planned out for you this week. You're fine."
And so I did just that, I opened my eyes to focus on all the events God planned out that week for me to be taken care of. From the smallest details of us decided to relax at home instead of go somewhere to the larger ones like Clark being off so he could take me to the hospital and help me recover.
He had already walked the path before I even came close to the entrance of it.
Sometimes, we have to get through the storm, past the chaos, before we can begin to notice just how the Lord was fully present with us and worked things out for our good.
"The LORD himself goes before you and will be with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged."
- Deuteronomy 31 : 8
Whatever storm you're going through, take a moment, open your eyes to the goodness of the Lord. Even amidst your stormy weather.