We Don't Listen

"For as the loincloth clings to the waist of a man, so I made the whole house of Israel and the whole house of Judah cling to me, declares the Lord, that they might be for me a people, a name, a praise, and a glory, but they would not listen..." Jeremiah 13:11.

For what reason did God redeem you? He redeemed us for the same reason that He redeemed the people of Israel -- so that they would praise and glorify their Creator and Redeemer. We read the Old Testament and see how God, not only created for himself a people but over and over proved himself worthy of their worship. God would prove himself to be faithful despite the people's unfaithfulness time and time again. In our lives, doesn't God prove Himself to be faithful and trustworthy over and over again, even when we are not? Of course, the answer is yes. The fact is, and this is the greatness of our relationship with God through the finished work of Jesus, that our status with God doesn't depend on our faithfulness. It depends on Jesus' faithfulness to us. It is a good thing, because if our relationship with God were dependent upon our faithfulness, then we would be at odds with God. Like the nation of Israel, we have every reason to praise God for His faithfulness constantly, but we, too, do not listen and go our own way.

I say this because I know that no matter what happens when we visit Rochester, God is faithful and worthy of our praise. We know that God works all things for the good of those who love Him (Romans 8:28). The fact is, and I know this to be true, that we do not have to understand why things happen, but we do trust that the Almighty is perfectly wise and knows what He is doing. On Tuesday morning, we woke up really early and headed to Mayo, and Gage started the day with some heart tests. Gage was brave and handled everything so well! They wanted to look at his heart function, but also the size of his aorta, which was slightly enlarged on previous scans. It is difficult to determine whether this is due to the ECD or simply a characteristic of Gage, but it is something that needs to be closely monitored. The results of that test showed that there was no change in the size of his aorta, but his heart was working perfectly. I am not sure what I was hoping that test would show. I don't want the ECD to be affecting his heart, but at the same time, I hoped that God would have remedied this in one way or another.

Next, we went for Gage's full body scan and MRI of his head. These tests are a process; Gage has to be put out, then woken up, and put out again an hour or so later before the tests are conducted. Gage handled all of this so well, except when he woke up with an IV in his arm. That made him a bit upset. After our tests were over, we went back to the Ronald McDonald House and then went out for supper. One of the fantastic things about Mayo is how fast all of these tests come back. Before we got ready for supper, the results for all of Gage's tests were uploaded to the portal and accessible to us. I was reviewing all the results and noticed that his iron levels seemed to improve, which is good because he has been taking an iron supplement. Another value on his blood test concerned me a little, and I even went to Google to check it out. That wasn't reassuring. We also learned that Gage has an enlarged Lymph Node that showed up. I don't know what that means, but I was certain it wasn't anything to worry about. Desirae saw me looking at the results and just said, "Whatever it is, we will just take it all one step at a time. It will be okay." At that point, I felt a little guilty because I had gone to Google before I went to the Great Physician. I am so slow to listen.

In our visit with the doctor, they were pleased with Gage's progress. They were not concerned and said that Gage was doing great. Of course, they will keep an eye on these things, but they reassured us that Gage was headed in the right direction. It was very good news. And I am reminded in all of this that there is always a reason to praise the Lord. Whatever happens next, we will praise Him.