WHO IS IN CONTROL?

WHO IS IN CONTROL?
by Janet Baird Weisiger



She spotted the decades old t-shirt on the closet shelf.  She grabbed it, stretched it out and saw the words.  "Mission Control"!  Had she really labeled herself with such self proclaimed arrogance?  She laughed and recalled the event.

Their first daughter was getting married.  And for fun she had created t-shirts for the entire wedding party, each one labeled with a personality trait.  As mother of the bride she had chosen "Mission Control" to be emblazoned in bold blue letters on the pink shirt.  That had brought many laughs and she remembered the event with nostalgic pleasure.

But now she realized she was NOT in control and had never been in control ......of that wedding or of anyone's life, and certainly not her own.  She now posed the question silently to herself, "Who is in control?"

So much had happened to her in the past two years.........

It was March, 2009.  She and Dick were returning from their monthly shopping trip to Watertown, New York and stopped as usual at the customs station at the NY/Canadian border.  When Dick retired from his position as elementary school principal in New Jersey, they had decided to retire to their scenic lakefront property on the Rideau Waterway in Ontario.  After building a comfortable home they moved in.  The customs officials processed them and their belongings into Canada without hesitation in 1992.
The Canadian government had welcomed them.  After all, the US/Canadian border boasted as to its openness, friendliness and unguarded security.  The immigration border official told them at that time, "You can stay here as long as you want.  However, you may not be employed, matriculate at a university, and you must travel back to the US several times a year.  We will document you as 'seasonal residents'."  A smile and a wave in 1992 began 18 years of wonderful retirement.

But this cold March day of 2009, things had drastically changed.  Instead of the usual glancing at passports and nodding through customs, the female agent looked at them with suspicion, held on to their passports and directed them to stop at the official border crossing office.  Thus followed two hours of intensive questioning.  They had begun to feel like criminals!  "Where is your address in the States?  Who owns that house?"

Since they had established their son's home as their official US address for insurance and voting rights, the Canadian officials found that unacceptable in the new rules post 9/11.  Now they could only live six months each year in Canada and they had to own their own place in the States.  She remembered the anguish at hearing this information which was totally new to them.  Why hadn't they been notified officially by the government?

The customs official then told them, "You must leave Canada in four days or we will put you in prison!"

Wow!  What happened to the friendly US/Canadian relationship?

She recalled how they had quickly phoned their daughters in Michigan.  "We're coming to see you."

On the trip to Holland MI, she and Dick both agreed God was telling them to buy a condo in Holland NOW!  The family had been suggesting they consider a condo in the States for their winters so they realized the time had come.

After looking at over 30 condos, they had found one that they liked.  True, it had been built with handicap access including special access bathroom, wide hallways and outdoor ramps.  But it was a good price so they bought it.

The winter of 2009-2010, she was busy furnishing and decorating the condo.  Then in April 2010, they returned to their lake house on the Rideau Waterway in Ontario.

She sighed, her mind recalling those terrible weeks of June and early July, 2010.  Her energy slipping away, falling over in the garden and unable to get up, the night she could not get herself out of the bathtub, the day she realized she could not walk, could not hold a pencil and finally the drive to the hospital for the MRI in Watertown, NY and the subsequent trip to Syracuse Upstate Hospital by ambulance.  The MRI had shown "suspicious fluid in the left thalamus of her brain".  Even though she was a nurse, she had asked herself, "Where is the 'thalamus' and what does it do?"

By July 8, the oncologist told her the devastating news.  "You have cancer of the brain, located in the thalamus, very lethal, very aggressive and you have seven weeks to live!"

She remembered that moment, hearing their grown son crying, feeling the presence of the Holy Spirit and blurting out, "Praise God!"  And then the next day when the oncologist bounded into her room to tell her they had found a chemo which he "thought would work".  It had worked and God had made it work.  So, who was in control?

And then, by the end of October, she was discharged from the hospital (finally!).  Where could she go?  She was in a wheelchair, could barely walk, her right arm held in a sling, hardly able to speak and emotionally a wreck!  Well, of course, there was the condo in Holland, MI with handicap access!  Who planned that?

Tears filled her eyes as she raised her eyes toward Heaven.  "Oh God, You are so incredible!  You knew I would need this place before we even thought about the possibility.  You allowed that border crossing guard in Canada to stop us, put pressure on us, create a situation that we could not ignore and we ended up buying the perfect condo.  Who is in control?  YOU are!  Oh, Lord, may I never forget to trust You and acknowledge that You are in control!"

          "Blessed be the name of God forever and ever,
            For wisdom and might are His.
           And He changes the times and the seasons;
           He removes kings and raises up kings;
           He gives wisdom to the wise
          And knowledge to those who have understanding.
          He reveals deep and secret things;
          He knows what is in the darkness,
          And light dwells with Him."
                              Daniel 2: 20-22