Guarding You in All Your Ways

To say I was proud would be an understatement. The Science Olympiad team did so well yesterday, with 15 out of 16 of our kids medalling, and none in the bottom half of any event in a very competitive district. My kids medaled in both their events, though we know they can do even better. And so the team moves on to states and we get 7 more weeks to build helicopters and fling objects with our trebuchet and record time-staking, detailed, grueling, tedious data collection. Yippee!

And while the day was wonderful, and exhausting, and fun...the story of a helium balloon one of the team moms told me was the memory that most firmly planted itself in my skull. She was telling me about a friend of hers, a woman I had known from years ago when my son Matt used to belong to the Debate club. The woman was diagnosed with severe and horribly advanced cervical cancer. She fought for her life through a horrendous treatment, and then was rushed to the hospital as the end clearly neared. Her vital signs were all slipping dangerously low. Her son in the military was routed from his submarine to call and speak one last time to his dying mother. Her friends were called to be told she was probably not going to last the night. The family was told to decide whether to put her on life maintaining machines, or just let her slip away. A friend had sent a helium balloon with a verse on it to the hospital room a few days before the saga was drawing to this tragic close. As the family conferred with the doctor, the old balloon had slowly drifted downward, now almost scraping the floor.

My friend told me one of the young people who had been coached in Debate by this woman said, "No, she isn't going to die. God will heal her."

"Put her on life support," the family decided.
At the moment of that decision, the husband noticed the balloon slowly begin to rise. Over the next few critical moments, her vital signs returned to normal. The balloon rose until it hovered over her, string taut. Now, 3 months later, she is cancer-free. All traces of it gone.

"And I visited her just last week," the woman told me, "I had heard the story of the balloon. Do you know...I saw it....it is still high in the air, string taut, all these months later! The balloon is all shriveled and small...but it is still rising."
"What was the verse on it?" I asked.
"For he will command his angels concerning you
to guard you in all your ways," she said.

Psalm 121:5-8
The Lord watches over you—
the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day,
nor the moon by night. The Lord will keep you from all harm—
he will watch over your life; the Lord will watch over your coming and going
both now and forevermore.



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