Tuesday, June 5th, 2012. It was one of the longest days of my life.
Early in the morning at my office, I discovered our main network printer was not working. Half of my staff called in sick that day so I was shorthanded. I called the repair person who, of course, could not come in that day. Ironically, the previous week, I purchased a new printer as a backup which also arrived on that Tuesday. However, after several hours of unsuccessfully attempting to install this printer on the network, I discovered that our internet provider had done a firmware upgrade on our router which shot our previous IP protocol settings for our network printer. So although we had a new printer, I was unable to use it as a network printer which was synced to an offsite server. That day, we also received a near record number of cases, so everything was happening at once, and we could not print any reports that were to be sent to the physicians' offices.
During all these work related issues of that day, my thoughts were on my mother who was in the hospital. She was admitted on May 22nd and a biopsy on May 25th was positive for stomach cancer. On that same Tuesday, June 5th, when everything began going wrong at the office, my mother, in Honolulu, was undergoing surgery for her gastric resection. An intraoperative frozen section that afternoon found metastatic nodules so the cancer was deemed inoperable and the surgeon opted for a simple bypass and not a definitive cancer surgery. My sister was keeping me informed with text messages and phone calls during the day when all these work-related problems were happening.
But the day had still not ended. My daughter already had a stress fracture of her lower L5 vertebrae due to gymnastics. She had been healing with a brace she had worn since October but a week earlier, a mean and thoughtless boy in her class pulled out the chair from under her and she fell on the floor on her tailbone. Ever since that incident, she was complaining of increasing pain at that site. At 5PM, at the end of the work day, I took her to the orthopedic surgeon where x-rays confirmed what we suspected, she had now fractured her tailbone.
By 830 PM, I thought the day would finally be coming to a close. My brain was shot and my emotions raw. But at 845PM, my neighbor called me to come over to his home and to bring my daughter. When we did, he showed us a hummingbird nest that had been abandoned and had two young chicks that had crawled out. Not knowing anything about how to care for hummingbirds, my daughter went to the internet and found some instructions; bottom line, don't do this yourself, only a professional can do this. I tried to call my cousin, a veterinarian, but she was not home. I found an animal shelter hotline and on this hotline, unbelievably, there was a special number for hummingbirds. I called this number and a woman answered. She lived in Lomita and told me to bring the two chicks to her home. So with my neighbor, my daughter, and myself, we drove to Lomita at 930 PM and entered a home literally filled with hundreds of hummingbirds of all ages and development. We were greeted by the woman who took the chicks from us and immediately started feeding the hungry birds. She estimated the ages to be about 10 days old and said that if we did not bring the chicks in, they probably would not have survived the night, either because of the cold exposure or another animal would have eaten them. I told her that we read on the internet that these chicks required feeding every hour. She nodded and sighed, "Yes, I will be up with them all night. I have been doing this for 26 years and have not had a single night of rest. Today I took in 5 hummingbirds. I have taken in 236 birds this year alone."
I marveled at this woman and told her, "It is so amazing that a hummingbird shelter like this and a person like yourself were living just 10 minutes away. Thank you so much."
She looked at all of us with a worn but penetrating look and said, "There are not enough of us. But thank you, you did the right thing."
Of all the pain this day and previous weeks produced, this was one of the few bright spots that brought a heartfelt smile to my face.
Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?
Matthew 6:25-26 (ESV)
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Philippians 4:6 (ESV)
I don't have all the answers to all of the issues in the office, either IT, personnel, or otherwise. I hurt for my mother and my daughter. But God reminded me of His continual provisions and providence by this simple and unusual incident that occurred on what was perhaps the longest day of my life.
Cast all your cares upon Him for He cares for you. It is His promise to all who trust in Him.
Love and trust the Lord; seek His will in your life.
