Day 47

 

Someone To Call On

 

Cast all your anxiety on him, because he cares for you.

 

1 Peter 5:7

 

 

When my first wife died an older woman friend of mine told me, "You are going to be a popular man with the ladies." She didn't mean I had suddenly started looking like Brad Pitt; it was that I was a bachelor with a cute little one year old boy. The more noble part of me likes to think that women  became attracted to me because of the tragic story and the adorable baby. The more cynical part of me thinks there were some desperate single moms out there that saw me as an answer to some of their problems. I suppose there were some of both.

 

It had only been a month since my wife had died when the phone started ringing. I was never sure what to think about women calling me. I'm old enough to have heard from my parents that, nice girls don't call boys." I was also young enough and worked with teenagers enough to know that these days nice girls do indeed call boys. But these weren't girls, they were women. They called, short ones, tall ones, skinny ones, not so skinny ones, pretty ones and some who in our politically correct times could only be described as beauty challenged. Some of them I knew fairly well but most of them I barely knew. They all called to, "offer my condolences."

 

There was one in particular that I remember. She was a pretty lady that I had just met. She had a son that was starved for male attention that I had played catch with at a church picnic. She seemed to be nice but I really didn't know her.

 

When she called she said, "If you ever need someone to talk to please give me a call. I'm not a stranger to death, so I know what you are going through. My mother died when I was 12 and then my fiancé died in Vietnam. My sister died a few years later and I had only been married a couple of years when my husband died. Other than my son my dad is all I have left and he is back in Colorado and has cancer. I don't expect him to live but another year at most. So, you can see I really am no stranger to death. If you want to talk just let me know."

 

I was somewhat stunned by this oration but managed to mumble out, "I appreciate the offer but I'm doing okay right now." What I felt like saying was, "Lady, I wouldn't touch you with a 10 foot pole. I want to live!" I wasn't even sure it was safe to have talked to her on the phone.

 

It is nice to have someone you can call on, a friend who will listen and encourage you. As Christians we have such a friend. That friend is Jesus. The Bible tells us we can call on him "because he cares for you." One of the great encouragements of the gospel is that not only is God able to help us, he cares about us and wants to help us. We always have someone to call on.

 

After I didn't respond to any of the women who called and finally met my quota of condolences the phone stopped ringing. At the right time God brought just the right woman into my life. She has been a good mother to my son and a good and loving wife to me. And best of all my relationship with her is not life threatening.

 

Upon Further Review:

 

Read Matthew 11:28-30

 

• Who does Jesus call to himself?
• What does Jesus promise?
• What does it imply to take on a yoke?