GOING HOME

GOING HOME



         The little girl sat alone on her front steps.  Tears streamed down her face, and her shoulders shook with the force of her emotions.  She wasn’t much more than five or six as she sat there her head bowed in her crossed arms on her knees.

         “What’s the matter, Peggy Sue?” the man said.

         She lifted her face to him and wiped at the tears on her face.  “It’s mama.  The doctor’s with her,” Peggy Sue said.

         “Well now, if the doctor’s with her, it’s going to be all right,” the man said.

         “No, it won’t.  I heard him say that she’s not going to make it this time.”

         He sat on the porch beside her.  “Well now, Peggy Sue, you know that your mama loved Jesus.  It’s going to be all right.”

         “Daddy’s gone to get the preacher.  He’s all broke up.”

         They both looked up to see her father approach with the minister.  Peggy Sue stood to her feet a look of hope on her tiny face.  “The doctor is still in there.”

         “Then there’s hope,” her father said.

         “There’s always hope,” the minister said.

         “George, I didn’t expect to see you this morning,” her father said.

         “I was passing by on my way to town, and I saw Peggy Sue on the steps crying.  She said your wife’s in a bad way, not expecting to make it this time.”

         “She’s pulled through before,” her father said.

         “You don’t mind if I hang around and pray for your wife, do you?”

         “Not at all.  I welcome the prayer,” her father said.

         George and Peggy Sue watched as her father and the minister disappeared into the house.

         “It’s bad.  I heard what the doctor said.  It’s worse than last time.  Last time was just a summer cold.  This is worse.  He called it pneum something.”

         “Pneumonia?” George said.

         “Yes, that’s the word.  He said it was bad in her lungs.”

         George looked concerned.  “Why don’t we pray?  You know that Jesus can heal even the worst sicknesses.”

         “I know.  He healed me of the chicken pox last year.”

         “I remember.  You had spots all over you.”

         “I couldn’t go to church for two weeks.”

         “Well, just like God healed you of chicken pox, He can heal your mama of pneumonia, so let’s just take this matter to Him, shall we?”

         Peggy Sue bowed her head in her arms again.  Her small voice muffled in her arms as she began.  “Dear Jesus, please heal my mama.  I don’t want her to go be with You just yet.  And when you heal her God, could You make it so that she never gets sick again?”

         “God, we know how much Peggy Sue’s mother loves you.  She knows that You care about her smallest need and desire.  She’s said so many times that You’re down on the inside of her, just like when Your Son, Jesus, prayed for all the disciples, and all of us who hadn’t been born yet.  Jesus said that He was in You, and You were in Him, and together You were one.  We’ve seen the love and devotion she has toward her family, and how she’s been a wonderful angel of ministry at the church, always willing to help when needed.  Take her in Your loving arms and heal her so Peggy Sue won’t be without her mother, and her father won’t be without a wife.”

         “Mama said we could come to You about just anything God.  I want You to heal my mama.  If You let my mama live I promise I will spend my whole life doing what You want me to do.  I’ll even go preach like the preacher who’s there with mama now.  I’ll do anything, God, just let mama live.”

         They heard sirens.  George and Peggy Sue looked up to see them come toward them, and stop in front of the house.  Peggy Sue jumped to her feet as the men got out of the ambulance and went to the back, opened the doors, and brought out a gurney, and then quietly walked between them up the steps to the house and disappeared inside.

         “I think your mama is going to be all right.  The doctor wouldn’t have called the ambulance otherwise,” George said.

         Peggy Sue sat back on the steps, folded her hands in front of her, bowed her head, squeezed her eyes shut, and prayed, “God, take special care of my mama in the hospital.  Make her better.  Please.  I promise to be good until she comes home, and I promise I’ll do anything You want me to do.  I’ll do my chores without being told, and even go to bed on time without arguing with daddy.  Please, God, help the doctor’s make her better.  I promise I’ll do whatever You want me to do if You make her better.”

         George smiled at the earnestness of the prayer as he in turn bowed his head and prayed.  “Father God, thank you for what You’re going to do.  In Jesus name, I pray, amen.”

         The screen door opened and the men came out with the gurney.  Peggy Sue jumped to her feet when she saw her mother on it.  She looked pale.  Her eyes were closed, and there was a plastic mask over her nose and mouth.  A bag on a pole with tubes ran into her arm, and her father cried.

         Tears ran down her face again as Peggy Sue looked on as her mother was put in the back of the ambulance.  Her father turned to her.  “We’re going to go with the ambulance.”

         “Is mama?”  Peggy Sue couldn’t finish what she was about to say.  Her eyes looked worried, and her heart hammered inside her chest.  Mama couldn’t die.  She had prayed so hard.

         Her father shook his head.  “We don’t know.  We can only pray.  Dr. Wilson has done what he can for the moment.  She’ll be better in the hospital where they can take better care of her.”

         Her father reached out his hand to her.  She looked up at George.  “Thank you for praying for my mama.  She’s going to be better now.”

         “I’ll keep praying for her,” George said.

         “I’ll meet you at the hospital,” Dr. Wilson said.

         Her father looked up at the doctor.  “Yes.”  He turned to George.  “Thank you.  I’ll call you when I know more.”

         “I’ll be expecting your call.  God be with all of you.”

         With that her father led Peggy Sue around the house to the car and soon they followed the ambulance to the hospital.

         Peggy Sue was quiet the whole way.  Her thoughts were on her mother in the ambulance in front of them.  The sirens were loud as they went screaming through the streets and entered the driveway at the hospital.

         She walked through the doors that opened when she came to them.  Inside it was busy.  People sat in chairs, children played quietly in a corner with coloring books and other toys, the TV was on, but no one paid any attention to it.  People paged through magazines, and put back.  A man stood to his feet, ran a hand through his hair, paced the area, and then sat again.  Peggy Sue took it all in as she found a seat to sit in while her father went to talk to the nurse at the desk.  She didn’t want to join the other kids.  She didn’t want to watch the television.  She wanted to be with her mama.  She wanted to know that she was going to be all right, that Jesus had healed her and she would be going back home.

         Her father joined her and they waited.  Peggy Sue watched the hands on the clock move slowly around the face.  It went around one whole turn before Dr. Wilson came back out to them.

         “You had better come back.  I’ve done all I can.  There is nothing more I can do,” Dr. Wilson said.

         Her father stood to his feet and took her by the hand as they walked through the doors that led to the small rooms where she could see other people, and their families with them.

         Dr. Wilson opened a door on the far end of the corridor.  “I’ll be at the desk.”

         Her father looked up at him.  “Thank you.”

         They went into the room.  A monitor showed wavy lines on it, and beeped.  Her mother lay on the bed, pale against the white sheet that covered her.  Her eyes were closed for the moment, but gradually she opened them and saw them there.

         Peggy Sue ran to her side a smile on her face.  It was the first time she had seen her with her eyes open since her father had told her that her mother was very sick and had called the doctor to come.  “Mama, you’re going to be all better.  I prayed.  So did George.  He came by this morning and we prayed together.  I promised God that if He made you all better that I would do anything He asked me.  I would even do my chores without being told, and go to bed on time.”

         Her mother smiled a faint smile as she turned to her.  “You are a good girl.  I love you.  But sometimes God makes us better by taking us home.”

         Hope lit Peggy Sue’s eyes as she smiled for the first time.  “You’re going home?”

         Her mother shook her head slightly.  “Not home with you and daddy.  But home with Jesus.”

         “But I prayed,” Peggy Sue said.

         “I know sweetheart.  Sometimes it’s the only way to get healed.”

         “But Jesus is down on the inside of you.  You have to get better.”

         “Peggy Sue.  I love you very much, and I want to stay with you, but my time on earth is over.  I want you to promise me one thing.”

         Tears flowed from Peggy Sue’s eyes.  She shook her head as she wiped at the tears and looked at her mother.  “I’ll do anything you say, mama.”

         “I want you to keep your promise to God.  Don’t let it be just words that you said if He would heal me.  There are many ways God heals us.  Sometimes it’s by taking us home to be with Him.  When I go to be with Jesus, I’ll never be sick again, and while I’m there I’ll be watching everything you do.  I know you’ll grow up to be a fine young woman.  That’s what I want you to do.  Can you do that for me?”

         Peggy Sue couldn’t speak as she nodded her head, and the tears flowed down her cheeks.

         “Good girl.  Now do you mind if I talk with your father for a little bit?”

         Her father looked like he was going to cry as he turned to Peggy Sue.  “Can you wait for me out in the lobby where we were just now?  I’ll join you as soon as I can.”

         Peggy Sue rushed to the bed and laid her head on the cover over her mother’s chest.  “I love you mama.  I promise I’ll be good and do everything you said.”

         Her mother’s hand came up to caress her hair.  “I know you will.”

         Peggy Sue looked up at her, and reached up to give her a kiss on the cheek.  “I love you, mama.”

         “And I love you.”

         Peggy Sue looked up at her father, then with tears on her cheeks left the room and went back to the waiting room.

         She sat on the same chair, watched everything, and prayed quietly.  “God, I made a promise to You, and to mama.  I will keep my promise.  I know mama is going to be with you.  I know she will be better there.  She will never be sick again.  If that is the only way that she can be better, then God, it’s okay with me.  It’s going to be hard for a long time, because I love my mama very much, but I will do my best to take care of daddy.  He’s going to need looking after now.”

         The hands on the clock moved half way around when her father came through the door again, tears on his face.  Her mother had gone to heaven to be with Jesus.  They were one, just as her mama had said so often when she talked about Jesus being down on the inside of her.

         Together they left the hospital.  Tomorrow would be a new day, but she knew Jesus would be with her, just like He had been with her mother.