Monday, July 17, 2006

Stay A Little While Longer

By Rachel Zacapa

Have you ever encountered a situation where you just knew God had His hand in it?

Recently, I had to bring our three-year-old son, Andrew, with me to a doctor's appointment for our two-and-a-half-month-old son, Adam, at Lucille Packard Children's Hospital. It was a challenge to keep Andrew entertained while I waited for Adam's appointment to end. And when it was over, I couldn't wait to go home.

But as we were heading out Andrew spotted the large screen television and train set in the waiting room at the day hospital (on the first floor) and wanted to stay. The day hospital is where they perform minor surgeries and the patient goes home the same day.

"Okay," I thought. "The poor guy is probably tired of being dragged around."

So we stayed for a bit, which seemed like a couple hours. I was just about to start nudging Andrew to leave, when in came a father and son. As the father pushed his son into the room in a stroller, I noticed the son had tubes in his nose and he looked fairly weak. Something inside me told me to stay, so I sat back down and continued reading the magazine closest to me.

In the corner of my eye, I watched as the father hurried to place his son in a chair, at the table with the train set, right next to Andrew. He said to his son, "Look, you can play with him."

The boy was about four years old but he looked small and frail. I soon realized that since the boy was confined to the chair, he could only play with the small section of the train tracks immediately in front of him. But that didn't stop Andrew from playing with him. The boy pushed his train through the bridge, which rolled down a slope and Andrew quickly retrieved it and rolled the train around the entire track back to the boy. "Here you go," Andrew said.

They continued to play and Andrew kept trying to show him how to play with the toys not aware that the boy couldn't respond because he was too weak.

About 45 minutes went by and I began to feel restless, hungry, and impatient. I called to Andrew, "Hey, Andrew, we should get going, we need to eat lunch." I felt guilty about cutting their playtime and trying to leave but we had already been there for almost three hours!

I called Andrew a few more times and just as I began to call again the nurse came out and told the boy that there was a room ready for him. I was relieved! The boys said goodbye and we left.

As I drove home, I thought about the boy in the waiting room. I wished I wasn't in such a rush to leave, I realized that I needed to be patient because maybe that voice inside me telling me to stay was actually the Holy Spirit's (God's) prompting. I thought about how this little boy probably didn't get out much to play and how he probably felt lonely most of the time. I began to think that we were meant to be there on that day, at that moment. Could it be that God was using Andrew to bring a bit of joy into this boy's life in that brief moment of time?

I wished that I listened more to that voice inside me that said, "Stay a little while longer." I wished that I took the time to watch God bless that little boy and wasn't in such a hurry to leave. On that day, I was reminded that God is always present and puts many blessings in our path, we only need to take the time to receive them.
CAPTION: "Photo courtesy www.copyrightfreephotos.com."

3 comments:

Farmgirl Susan said...

What a wonderful experience for all of you. Thanks for sharing it. : )

Anonymous said...

hi rach, i just read this entry. it's beautiful. (: you'll have to tell me how this entry reminded you of me. miss you. love tiffany

Anonymous said...

I am encouraged by your experience. Thank you, Rach, for sharing your life.

mB