I hear this phrase from my wonderful wife so many times. It just seems to her that no matter where we go or what we do somehow, there is a reminder that pops up about our granddaughters. I’ll admit, it does seem sometimes to be a cruel way to keep our loved ones in our forward memory but it’s not so much that it happens, it’s how it happens.
My wife and I are constantly volunteering for the less fortunate. Yesterday in Milwaukee, we were volunteering for Feeding America at our Summerfest grounds, collecting non perishable food items for people who need it. As you can imagine, because it was opening day of the festival, it was well attended and about half way through our day a mother approached with two young girls to give her food items to my wife as entry to the festival. I knew right away what was going to happen so I stood close by and listened as my wife asked about the girls. The heartbreaking part of it wasn’t that they were twins. It was that they were twins of the exact same age as our granddaughters. When my wife turned to look at me, tears welled up in her eyes and the statement, I’ve heard so many times came out. Why does God keep doing this to me?
I’ve tried answering this question many times but I’ve never been able to give her any solace with my answer. Yesterday, for whatever reason, a different answer got in my head. Instead of me saying it’s all God’s plan, which it is of course, I said maybe its because He wants you to have their memory in the forefront of your mind always to let you know He’s working on it and so you don’t let those great memories fade. Now, I don’t have a direct line with God other than to pray to Him to bring my wife some peace but it does seem like from time to time, He nudges her with a memory so He can bring her back to the importance of the time we spent with them. It’s a hope and belief thing really. It’s like He’s saying, don’t give up on them because I’m not giving up on you. It’s hard to believe that after so much time goes by but without hope, what do we have? And always remember, God answers all prayers, but it isn’t always in the way we want or think. Thank goodness He knows better.