Lightning Never Strikes Twice

The old saying goes, “Lightning never strikes the same place twice.” With our human eyes, it’s easy to believe that. But truthfully, lightning actually does strike twice in the same place and multiple times more too.

In 2013, the proverbial lightning struck my mother and she took a bad fall in the early morning hours and broke her left femur. From then until several months later it was a physical and spiritual battle for the both of us.

Fast forward to this past Monday, Sept 18th, about 2:00 in the morning when lightning struck twice. Mom took another fall and broke her right femur. On top of that, she dislocated her shoulder which they put back in place that night and she may have surgery in the months to come. For now, we worry about the femur injury.

Her creatine levels were too high so she had to wait until Friday afternoon for surgery. Many people were praying and I’d be lying if I said I wondered if God was listening or could hear those prayers on her behalf. Deep down I knew He was listening and I knew He could hear. But it just seemed to take forever to see Him move. When Friday came and surgery was set for that afternoon, my friend said that when He’s four days late, He’s still on time. I’m thankful I serve THAT God.

It has been agonizing watching her suffer.

Since she’s been in the hospital, she’s gotten a pressure ulcer on her right heel, surgery to repair her femur, an injured shoulder, her hemoglobin has dropped considerably so she’s receiving blood as I type this, and she has a UTI.

She has maxed out on morphine and OxyCodone and they’re changing her meds today to two others in hopes it will relieve some of the pain she’s having.

As I sit here and listen to her moan or cry out, it’s almost all I can stand. She’s so pitiful. There’s really nothing I can do for her except rub her arm and tell her to breathe through the pain.

She is one tough cookie, this one. And continually apologizes to the nurses for “being a baby,” in her words. Gracious! If I were in her bed, I’d be hollering out too.

The other night I overheard my Aunt say about mom, “She’s being challenged.”

It’s true. This is definitely her Goliath, come to challenge her. I see a little David in her rising to that challenge and I know that her God, like little David’s, will be the champion at the end of this story.

David picked up five smooth rocks to fight that giant. Five is the number of grace in Scripture and with God’s grace, David only needed one to kill his Goliath.

Mom has no rocks in her hands on this battlefield. But she does have the same grace little David had on his battlefield and she has the same Champion standing beside her to fight this battle for her.

“The battle’s not mine, said little David,

Lord it’s thine, I’m in Your favor

I’ve given it all to You

Lord, You know what to do

I’m so glad you set me free

You’re really all that I need

For the battle’s not mine, I give it to you

Lord it’s thine.”

Please pray for my mom if you think of her. I know she would appreciate it and so would I.