I didn’t want to stay. I wanted to go home and pretend that none of it was happening and just maybe, just like that, somehow, it wouldn’t be. I wanted all the hard to just disappear. Though there was a doctor, with a petite face that I vaguely remember and, in the chaos, a name in which I don’t recall. It was her. She begged me to stay in the hospital bed and not to go home. Her urging helped keep me from walking out those hospital doors that night. If I went home, I wouldn’t be here today. She saw me that night through eyes of compassion and not as just another face in the ER room. I was admitted that night and by morning signing a paper to resuscitate if needed and getting two pints of blood urgently pumped into me. As I was laying in that bed and watched as someone else’s blood, two different people’s, pumped into my veins, I was both overwhelmed, but grateful. Two blood donors saved my life on that early morning. My husband sat in the room by me, refusing to leave for even a moment, his support helping me brave a situation I never thought I’d be in. Though through all of it, I know was God overseeing it all. Encouraging my heart to go in again to be evaluated. Sharing His still small voice to listen to the good Dr and stay. And I know as I was laying there in that bed, my body fighting for life, that He was there holding me and breathing life back into me. I also know that God blessed me with my husband, He also knew I’d need him, both then and for many more years to come. I know that day, was another chance at life and I am here because of so many people’s compassion and care and especially love. Especially Gods love and care. That experience left me with a lot of feelings. Though it left me with life, gratitude, dedication and love. Friend, God is always with us, looking out for us. Though sometimes He calls us, to help care for one another. Whether we are Dr’s, spouses, or just a caring friend, may we step up for one another. In silent prayer, prayers said aloud, being present or using our God-given skills to care for another; may we do so. For I can say through personal experience, we need God first and foremost, but we also need each other to make it, in this adventure called life.

Erin Fitts-Brower 

Matthew 22:37-40 NIV

Jesus replied: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”