Eat, Read, and Be Mommy

I can’t write about soup tonight, folks.  My heart is too full.  (Also, it’s way too hot in my house to even think about it.)  One of my 15-year-old nephews is in the hospital tonight.  He had surgery last night, for severe osteomyelitis, and he’s looking at more tomorrow morning, because osteomyelitis is the kind of serious infection that you just don’t envision a healthy, active 15-year-old having to face.  Family and friends all over the country and more–quite literally from coast to coast, AND in Canada–have been praying for him.  Those prayers are coming from people of different faiths, in different circumstances, and from different backgrounds, and every time I sent another prayer up today–as I was buying milk at Costco, taking my girls to piano lessons, reading to my children, and thinking of my nephew–I could feel that love and faith as a tangible thing.  I texted one of my neighbors from the store today to ask her to pray for him without telling her kids quite how serious it was, and her response was almost immediate.

“Absolutely.  Praying now.”

It was then that I cried.  These are fabulous neighbors, but we both have kids and our conversations are often short and take place across our yards, and yet there was no hesitation there.  It didn’t matter that our faiths are different, or that she’s likely never met my nephew.  I asked her to pray, and pray she did.  What more could you ask of a neighbor?