Isaiah 55:8 says, “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the LORD.” God’s ways are not our ways, so we don’t always understand why things happen the way they do.
In June of 1994, Floyd landed in the hospital on the verge of a massive heart attack. After a series of tests, they did an angioplasty on him, which opened a blocked artery, and they finally released him ten days later. Two short months later, he was back in the hospital for the same artery, and they repeated the angioplasty.
That second angioplasty lasted him almost twenty years. Then in May, 2014, again on the verge of a massive heart attack but unaware of it, he mentioned to the doctor on a routine visit that he’d been having some minor chest pain. An angiogram showed that his arteries were 95 percent clogged and the hospital did an emergency triple bypass on him the very next day. Eight months later, he was back in the hospital with crushing chest pain. One of the arteries in his bypass was closing up and the enzymes in his blood work showed that he was having a heart attack. The doctor put a stent in to keep the artery open and released him from the hospital.
Floyd and I have been married for 35 years, and there is ten and a half years between us, so it is quite logical to expect him to go before I do. Regardless, I have no way to describe the past twenty years except that Floyd is still here only by the grace and mercy of God. I’m certainly not ready to be widowed. (I don’t think anyone ever is.) And our children cherish their dad. But we’ve seen God intervene on his behalf time and time again. We greatly appreciate that.
Yet, in May, 2004, we buried our three-month-old granddaughter; Jay’s and Luke’s baby sister. We don’t understand why tragedy strikes down one loved one while the Lord divinely protects another. All we know is that God’s ways are not our ways.
And whether we like it or understand it, we can be assured that…
- God is good. (Psalm 34:8)
- He never makes mistakes. (Deuteronomy 32:4)
- He always does right. (Psalm 145:17)
And He always knows what’s best for His children.