A Two Letter Preposition

It was a Tuesday.  Tuesdays are the crazy days in our home.  Running here and there with hardly a moment at home, or to catch my breath.

I had dropped my purse at the door and run in to catch up on some emails before we had to leave again.  That’s when the call came.  But I missed it.  I had left my cell phone in the car because we would be back on the road again soon, and if someone really needed me, they could wait.  Right?

Wrong.

The home phone rang.  I sighed, and held the phone in my hand for a few rings.  I didn’t recognize the caller ID, and for some reason our caller ID only displays phone numbers, not names.  But something compelled me to answer. And so I did.

It was a dear friend.  I could tell within a few seconds she wasn’t right.  Through whispers and sobs she told me that her brother had just died—a few moments ago.

I fought to understand what I just heard.  I tried to wrap my brain around it.  I had so many questions.  But this clearly wasn’t the time.  She asked for my prayers.  I struggled for words.  Help me, God.  Help me.

And then I started to pray.  Tears streamed down my face.  Someday I must accept the fact that I’m a prayer-crier.

I can’t tell you for the life of me what I prayed.  I don’t know if she could tell you either.  But somehow comfort was there.  The miles that separated us didn’t feel so extreme.  I could picture her, in a hospital, and me sitting next to her, holding her.  It was a beautiful picture.

The call ended abruptly.  Grief had overtaken and she needed to go.

I hung up.  I sat in silence for a long while.  I could barely form a thought. What just happened?  I remembered ending my prayer, as I do all my prayers, with “In Jesus Name.”  And that’s when I realized.  In Jesus.  That small, two-letter preposition.  In.

In Jesus we have comfort.  In Jesus we have peace.  In Jesus we have hope.  In Jesus we have friendship bound by a shared faith.  In reality I can’t be there with my friend.  But in Jesus I can walk through this with her.  I can help her carry this burden of loss.

In Jesus.

Oh how I love that preposition.

And oh how I love promptings from Jesus that a phone call must be answered.

In Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. Galatians 3:26-27