I call on the Lord in my distress, and he answers me. – Psalm 120:1
Have you ever been so overwhelmed by life that you feel all alone? You feel as far away from everyone, including God, as you could ever be? I experienced this feeling back in February of 1999.
It was exactly one year after losing my dear grandfather, and four months after losing my best friend, that I experienced another devastating loss. After years of hoping, I had finally received the joyful news that I was pregnant, only to lose the baby a month later. I was so overwhelmed by all the loss in my life that I withdrew from everyone, including God. I locked myself away, hiding from everyone and crying in pain. After several weeks, I heard a song on the radio called “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan. There is a line in the song that says “You’re in the arms of the angel, may you find some comfort here.” I could not get those words out of my mind.
The more I thought about those words I began to see myself wrapped in the arms of an angel sent by God. I began to call out to God to help me and to bring me peace. The next day my sister-in-law came to visit me and told me that I needed to get out of the house and be around people again. She told me that she was going to pick me up the next morning and take me to church with her and my brother.
God heard me cry out and he answered me, by sending me an angel. I went to church with my sister-in-law and brother, and it was the beginning of a wonderful journey that has brought me to where I am today. I now look back on that time in my life with a different prospective. It is still a painful time in my life, but it is also a time when God showed me his love and mercy, and through the “angel” he sent me, he brought me home!
Lee Ann Simpson, Administrative Assistant, St. Luke’s Asbury Campus
