Daily Devotion – June 1, 2020 – Larry Papenfuss
This week I am recalling another time when we were waiting with great uncertainty about the future and what brought us some comfort. In the summer of 1998, my wife’s father died unexpectedly at age 64. On Oct. 30th of that year, my daughter Hannah was born 10 weeks prematurely weighing only 1lbs 14 ounces. Dawn was released after a few days but Hannah remained in the Intensive Care Nursery on a ventilator. Soon after birth she developed a hole in her lung and was fighting for her life. Each day seemed endless as we prayed and waited to see if the hole would heal. It went on for days and Hannah would ultimately spend about 10 weeks in the ICN.
In the midst of this uncertainty, I stilled planned for Christmas and had bought my organist wife some song books of Lorie Line’s piano arrangements which she loved and used for weddings, funerals, and other services. I had hid these songbooks in the trunk of the old car we had inherited from her father. While Hannah struggled in the ICN, the car was stolen and later found burned out in St. Cloud along with all of my Christmas gift of music for her.
Enter Concordia Alumni Relations Director, Ernie Mancini. He had arranged for Lorie Line to perform at Concordia that fall. Hannah was still struggling in the ICN but Ernie invited Dawn and me to be his guests at Lori’s concert in Memorial Auditorium. When we arrived we were ushered to some premium seats very near the front. Before intermission, Lori brought on stage the amazing Robert Robinson who sang On Eagles Wings. And as he sang:
And He will raise you up on eagles’ wings
Bear you on the breath of dawn
Make you to shine like the sun
And hold you in the palm of His hand
Overcome with the emotion of our waiting and praying for Hannah . . . we both openly wept.
At intermission, Ernie came over and asked us to come with him. He brought us back stage to meet Lorie Line and her husband, Tim. He had told Lori and Tim our story and arranged for us to meet them. They brought Dawn autographed copies of the music that I had purchased and more. We had a wonderful conversation about the healing quality of music and the promise it can bring us in times of uncertainty.
And so in this time of our waiting and asking How Long O Lord? I share again the promise we heard that night from Isaiah 40:29-31: He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might he increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted; but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.
Amen – so shall it be.
