seeing God's hand

almost two weeks ago, my mother asked me to call a Dutch number for her – it was the brother of my uncle Chris (who’s not my uncle but some cousin once removed or something else confusing). My uncle had gone into the hospital really sick. she had tried to call but couldn’t get through. i tried and had no more success. my uncle got a bit better in the next couple of days but i still wanted to be able to tell my mom that i had tried as much as i could to contact them. figuring that part of the problem with contacting them was my inability to use the multi-phone system of the house, last Tuesday i finally asked Zr Annemieke for some help.

and so i tried calling. it didn’t work. so i made sure i really knew what numbers i had to press to get out of the system and into a different province. and we discovered the phone number i had no longer worked. i knew the name of the village (and our office has relatively recent phone books from everywhere in Holland) so we looked up their name. but they’re not listed. however, Zr. Annemieke knew that all the phone numbers had changed about four years ago, so maybe we should just switch the first few numbers in the number i had with those of the numbers listed from the village – and call it and see what happens. (she was the one who called, though, as we had no idea if this would work and she would be able to explain – in Dutch – what in the world we were doing whoever it was that picked up the phone.)

but it was my relatives on the phone. i tried to explain a bit better why i was calling. i asked for their e-mail address so my mom could be in better contact with them – but as it did seem a bit strange to be asked by someone you’d never heard of for their email address, i volunteered just to give them my address. and then that night (before 5 for my mom), i emailed to her what i had done, mentioned that they seemed a bit puzzled by the phone call (not surprisingly), and i gave my mom their real phone number. she called them on Wednesday morning and explained things as much as possible. and on Thursday, they flew to Toronto to visit.

by the time they arrived my uncle was out of intensive care and doing much better. and my mom said they had a wonderful visit with him. then my uncle took a turn for the worse. on Sunday, my family was called from church – my Uncle Chris had passed away. he actually hadn’t been doing that well since Christmas so in many ways it’s a blessing. but it still brings sadness - i have lived out of Canada for so long that he wasn’t so much a part of my regular life – and so my sadness over his death is because i know that my parents and sister will miss him.

and i tell this story as a way of sharing my wonder in seeing God’s hand working through different things both the ordinary and the extraordinary: the guilt i knew i would have had if i hadn’t honestly done all i could to help my mom contact my dutch relatives so i knew i had to ask for help; my living in a community where giving help – and solving strange problems like mine – is so normal that i expect Zr. Annemieke doesn’t even see what she did as anything special; the wisdom and desire of my relatives to get a flight a day after they talked to my mom; and the good health of my Uncle Chris so they could visit together. and i know my part wasn’t that big (and after all, my motivation was guilt!) – but i am still deeply thankful that i could have been part of bringing my uncle and his brother and sister-in-law together again – and knowing my parents are very thankful to share with them the responsibilities and burdens that come when someone dies.