How do you feel about change? The only people who really like change are babies with wet diapers. Especially as we grow older, change is difficult. My Aunt Naomi, who helped my mom make my first suit when I was a teenaged preacher, heard there was a tornado in Houston. She called me Tuesday to make sure my younger brother and I were ok. Naomi lives in Kennewick, Washington. For a season she lived with her husband, my dad’s brother Bill in Roosevelt along the Colombia River. Every Sunday she would drive over a mountain to get back to Sunnyside to attend her church. She drove an hour each way.
Uncle Bill passed during Hurricane Harvey. I flew up to do his funeral before the water was released flooding our neighborhood. My own mom was gravely ill in Dallas. Since his passing, Aunt Naomi’s life has changed. She sold their place and moved back to Sunnyside in the Yakima Valley. Her drive to church was now shorter. But recently her kids insisted and assisted her into an assisted living miles away in the Tri-cities. They also took her car keys. She told me the transition has been frustrating. I tried to imagine what that would be like.
Jacob left the promised land to go to Egypt. He lived his last seventeen years there. But he made Joseph promise to bury him back home. Joseph agreed. When Jacob realized he wouldn’t be buried in Egypt, he leaned on the top of his staff and worshiped God.
Aunt Naomi asked about all of our family members. Then she told me she prays for me every day. Before I hung up the phone, I asked if I might pray for her. She allowed me to. When I finished, she prayed for me. It was heartfelt prayer of a person who was in good practice. Naomi talks to the Lord like she knows him. She can’t control all the changes in her life, but all of her moves have drawn her closer to the Lord. Her prayer for me moved me.
During the Covid period, I remembered a song by Ricky Skaggs called Somebody’s Praying. My friend Mike Fuller sang it at Larry Bertrand’s retirement party. Remember the words? “Somebody’s praying. I can feel it. Somebody’s praying for me. Mighty hands are guiding me to protect me from what I can’t see. Lord I believe. Lord I believe. Somebody’s praying for me. Still I went on because there was someone down on their knees. Lord I thank you for those people praying all this time for me.” I pray for you. Will you pray for me?
