When Everything Around is Falling Down
It is 1934
What do you say when everything around is falling down?
When you are in Huxley, Iowa, separated by 393 miles from the man you promised to marry and you just got word that his twelve-year-old son needs an appendectomy and you know because you've written about it in past letters that people die from this condition or die from the surgery and there is a recovery time of weeks and weeks and the man you love is a widowed farmer with eight children who is already stretched so thin?
What do you say when everything around is falling down?
My grandmother writes:
Huxley, Iowa
Sept. 16, 1934
My Dear Dearest Nels,
"Jehovah is our strength and our refuge,
our very present help in trouble
." Ps. 46:1 Is not that a very good promise from God—who loves us so dearly that He wants to help us in our every need and trouble, and tho we cannot always understand why this and why that, we know He wants to draw us ever closer to Himself....
I was so very sorry to hear that Alvin was sick; I am hoping and praying that he will be better by the time you get this. Oh, how I wish I could have been there now and helped you take care of him....
“I will lift up mine eyes unto the mountain from whence cometh my help, my help cometh from Jehovah who made heaven and earth. Ps 121:1-2. We will look to Him for comfort, and strength during these trying days, and He has said I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. Heb. 13:5. Tell Alvin not to be afraid if he is at the hospital, tell him that Jesus will be with him and take care of him....
It is 2012
What do you say when everything around is falling down?
When you are in Albert Lea, Minnesota, thousands of miles away from your four married children and thirteen grandchildren and you just got word from the doctor that it is cancer and you know people die from cancer or die from the treatment and chemo will take weeks and weeks and you are already stretched so thin from almost two years of your husband having cancer?
What do you say when everything around is falling down?
My mother writes:
Good morning family,
I will start my chemo on Monday, September 24 at 8:45 a.m. at Rochester. Albert Lea could not get me on the schedule until into October, so we are starting in Rochester. I will be on a drug cocktail of taxol and carboplatin. Also my doctors have decided that I don't need Heparin shots--just two baby aspirin each day. Hip, Hip, Hooray!...
No Mayo trips this week--we can breathe.
The Lord is my Rock and My Salvation, whom should I fear; the Lord is the Strength of my life, of whom (or what) should I be afraid.
Much love from here,
Gpa and Gma
Two women from two generations,
bookends in my life,
share eternal words,
bookends of our faith,
when everything around is falling down,
they remember (and remind others) what gives them strength
to stand.
When everything around is falling down, what is holding up your life?