Daily Devotional Miracle

For a while, I was really into those daily devotionals--you know, where there's a Scripture text to read for the day, and a little paragraph reflecting on it. In college and after I used that one called "Our Daily Bread" and found that God would often use it to speak to me about exactly what was on my heart. I got my mom into these too, but at her church they offered "Christ in Our Home" instead, so she used that one. (In terms of these daily devotional things, in my experience the best one is the one put out by the Upper Room that I can't remember the name of. I am not a fan of "Our Daily Bread" anymore, but the one my mom reads seems pretty cool.)

Anyway, whenever I come to San Diego to visit my mom (which is where I am now), in the morning we get some coffee, sit in the living room, and she reads me the biblical passage of the day and the reflections from her daily devotional. Also in the one she reads ("Christ in Our Home") there is a line at the end that says "Prayer concern: XXXX" and the XXXX is always some random group of people that is loosely connected to the reflection (e.g., food service workers, gardeners, pastors, people struggling with debt, people who enter dog shows, etc.) So she'll offer some spoken, earnest prayer for them at the end of reading the devotional.

Well, yesterday we didn't do this devotional ritual, because my mom went to have cancer surgery (hence, me being here in San Diego) and we had to leave the house at 4am to go down to the hospital. She had the back corner or her tongue removed (it went well, she's home and recovering).

Anyway, as I wake up this morning and go into the living room, my mom (who cannot speak right now from the surgery) starts gesturing at her devotional book. I walk over to her and she points to the date at the top of the page, and it reads yesterday's date (December 19, 2006). Then she runs her finger to the bottom of the page and it reads: Prayer Concern: Those struggling with cancer.

You go, God.