Lessons in Goodness

It was a moment of irony. About an hour ago my mother - with what is left of her right leg bandaged and on ice - looked at me and said, "God has been so good to me." And she meant it. Earlier today, she had most of her leg removed. She will most likely never walk again. And on top of all that, she is an insulin dependent diabetic who is on kidney dialysis three days a week, is receiving radiation for breast cancer every day, has lost much of her hearing and must have oxygen to breathe well. How could someone like this possiby utter the phrase, "God has been so good to me" and mean it? I guess I don't really have a pat answer (I hate those anyway) but here are a few things I am learning as we journey down this path with my parents:

Lesson #1: God gives you enough grace for one day.
I'm learning that jumping ahead and trying to put all the pieces in place for tomorrow, or the next day, or next month just isn't possible right now. God wants us to trust him enough not to worry about tomorrow. My precious friends Mike and Sandy sent me an e-card with this verse included: "Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own." So I'm letting tomorrow worry about itself. God is giving us all we need for today.
Lesson #2: God reveals Himself in the most beautiful and real way in the midst of the most ugly situations:
Of course, this only happens if I can stop my whining and worrying and obsessing over myself long enough to have eyes to see it. God did not spare Himself from suffering. And he did not spare those who were bound to Him from it. There is something about trials and tribuations that chisel us into the people God wants us to be. I usually don't like this process at all, and have been known to run at full speed from it. Sometimes, though, there is no getting away from it. And so I am learning that God helps us cut through all the crap at times like this and see Him with new eyes.
Lesson #3: You never stop learning from your parents:
I thought they really had finished the "teaching phase" of their parenting. Not so. I am watching them closely and learning what true selflessness looks like. It's a rare thing. I don't have it. But I'm watching closely to see what it looks like, and it's really very beautiful.
Lesson #4: God's goodness doesn't have anything to do with our circumstances:
God is good, even when all the evidence would point to an otherwise conclusion. My mother truly believes that God has been good to her because she knows that He loves her with a boundless love that protects her, even when everything around (and within) seems to be falling apart. This is not an easy place to get to. We might say we believe this, but then some junky stuff start showing up in our lives and we're not so sure. But even in the middle of junky stuff - God is good...all the time.