In God's Loving Hands

I am having surgery tomorrow to have two tumors in my lower back removed. It is an outpatient surgery, and the tumors are very likely benign, but are causing pain in my nerves in my back and hips, so they must go.

As I reflect on my surgery, I harken back to the 2nd grade in 1971 when I had my tonsils removed. I remember spending the night at the old brick Skaggs Community Hospital in Branson. The very kind Dr. Roy Gillespie, who seven years before brought me into the world with a slap in my rear, removed my tonsils. I recall the night after the surgery being up all night in pain, scared and crying. I remember my Dad and Mom staying up all night with me. My Mom climbed into bed with me, comforting me with her soothing words and touch. 

I recall over 8 years ago spending the night with my Mom in the same brick section of Skaggs, now called Cox Medical Center Branson. Mom had been battling COPD, pneumonia and complications from neck fusion surgery. I tried my best to comfort her as she comforted me some 42 years before. I remember her saying to me, "I'm just putting my life in God's hands." She later graduated out of this life, and today she remains in God's loving hands, as I was in my mother's loving hands that night in 1971.

Back then I feared death. Going into this procedure tomorrow, I do not fear death. I know I am in God's loving hands. I am confident He's going to keep me around this fallen world for a few more years (I'm guessing 30!)...but who knows? Our lives are all just a vapor...so it's important to really reflect and focus on what is most important.

That's what I'm doing now.