Nothing More Can Be Done

I encountered three different situations in this past week when people were told, "Nothing more can be done."

One friend  of mine was struggling to see, having been told that there was nothing more that could be done about her failing eyesight. 

One young woman was fighting for her life, the doctors having done all they could to stem a virulent infection.

One precious grandmother was fading slowly into the next life, nothing more that could be done for her;   her husband distraught, not leaving her side for two weeks, day and night.

Until...

Because the presence of God changes everything.  It is that point of "nothing can be done" that God does His mightiest work.  It is in those times that we can most readily see His hand and trust His unfailing love.

There is nothing more that can be done...but God...

The story is not over.

My friend visited yet another doctor who suspected early cataracts, something none of the other doctors even considered at her age. With surgery on just one eye completed, she is seeing clearer than she could have imagined.

Buoyed up by the prayers of family, friends, and strangers,  the very ill young woman began a slow and unexpected improvement when a solitary doctor thought to tweak a procedure.  She has gone from the edge of life and back again, not yet out of the woods, but God's presence is thick in that room.

In the hospice room, a woman began to sing a hymn by her old mother's side: "When we all get to heaven, what a day of rejoicing there will be..."   "That's funny," her father interrupted, "your mother was singing that very song in the middle of the night."  Everyone was skeptical if that actually occurred, but that day for the first time in months, the man was at peace.  And early the next  morning, his wife crossed over from one life to the next.

We can never know what God will do.   But we can be assured that He is working still.  Sometimes we can see Him parting the Red Sea, sometimes things deeper than we can know.

But the story is never over.

That is what eternity is for, His purposes beyond measure.

...we look not to the things that are seen,
but to the things that are unseen,
for the things that are seen are transient,
but the things that are unseen are eternal.

                          2 Corinthians 4.18

And now, LORD,
          for what do I wait?
My hope is in You.

                           Psalm 39.7