When chickenpox hit this past summer, the long-anticipated adventure to the Midwest for my oldest son and me was cancelled last minute. We were incredibly sad not to be making our annual trip to visit my son’s best friend and for them to attend camp together while I would visit with and help the friend’s mom (who is my friend and mostly bedridden). But life happens…or in this case, didn’t happen. You might recall the post telling how we survived that heartbreak. Well, we would have to wait till next summer to see our friends. There was no other option.

About the same time as all of this disappointment in July, I discovered More Love Letters (MLL). People nominate someone they know who could use a bundle of love letters to encourage them. MLL chooses four or so of the nominees and then posts their story on the MLL website for a month. People from all over the world who know about the website write letters of encouragement to the nominees. The person who nominated her friend collects the letters throughout the month and then assembles them all together in a bundle to present to her nominee. Knowing my friend in Minnesota loves mail, I thought her receiving a bundle of love letters would be a perfect way to lift her spirts.

Thankfully MLL chose my friend to be a recipient of a bundle of love letters for August! (I highly recommend you check out the website.) All through the month, letters poured in to my house. I was so encouraged and comforted as I read the many thoughtful letters. By the time I mailed my friend’s bundle of love letters to her, I had filled a box with 280 letters from around the world!

MLL had me read all the notes first to make sure my friend would be fine with the content of the letters. Several of the kind strangers stated that they were praying that my friend and I would see each other soon. “That’s a nice prayer,” I thought, “But that’s not going to happen. They wouldn’t have prayed that if they’d known the circumstances.”

Hold it.

I completely dismissed prayers prayed to the Almighty God. Really?! Had I not learned my lesson with the chickenpox heartbreak?! God calls the shots, not me.

There are too many details for me to describe all that happened in the few weeks following my dismissal of these prayers. I’ll skip straight to mid-October when my son and I did in-fact fly to the Midwest.

I saw my friend soon.

My son saw his best friend.

And God totally amazed me.

He didn’t dismiss the prayers.

Praise Him! May our faith grow even more in 2019! Happy New Year!