A friend told me about a time forty years ago that still calms her. Just hearing about it calmed me, and I wasn't even there. 

 

She was overwhelmed, by the swirling changes in her life. Many of her closest friends had moved away, and she was feeling adrift. One morning, she was in that slippery place between sleep and wakefulness, which seems to invite spiritual presence. Her sensation was of being in choppy waters, without being wet. It was almost as if she was in the boat with Jesus's disciples, afraid of drowning. Then God reached out an arm toward her, with a background soundtrack of the words to a song, "Amid all change One changing not, yet making all things new..."  In a heartfelt exchange, she sensed the comfort she needed. 

 

"I never change," she heard, as she physically felt a strong hand clasping hers. 

 

The storms inside my own brain went quiet as she spoke. 

 

Then, since God is nothing if not generous, a small miracle came like the cherry on a sundae. My precious daughter walked down the hall toward me. We were in a public place, and if I had been sitting anywhere but precisely where I was, I would not have seen her. It felt like the sun coming through the clouds, to see her face. 

 

"Behold, the LORD’s arm is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His ear heavy, That it cannot hear." Isaiah 59