Someone once asked my Mom, a mother of 5 children, if she loved all 5 children equally. She said, “My love depends on what each child needs at any given moment.” In today’s parable, it seems unjust that those who came at the last hour to work in the vineyards received the same wage as those who worked the longest hours during the summer heat. Yet, Jesus clearly shows God’s goodness by seeking out those who are broken, those who are faithful, and those who in their last hours have a sudden change of heart that opens God’s kingdom to them. Like my Mom with 5 children, God sees where each child is and waits to give them what “they need at any given moment.”

Life is good. God is good. Yet, even for me, it is sometimes hard to see His goodness when my life is in turmoil. When I got married, my parents lived right across the street from me. I was a Youth Minister, we owned a nice home, I just finished my Master’s Degree, and my first child was born. Life was good!

Then my life seemed to fall apart at the seams. My parents retired to Florida, my mother-in-law was dying of cancer, my father-in-law had a terrible drinking problem, my brother-in-law was a heroin addict. And when I thought life couldn’t get any tougher, my parents’ new house in Florida burned to the ground in a wildfire, my mother-in-law passed away, my house flooded while my husband was away with the Navy, and my blind Granny came to live with me after her house in Brooklyn caught fire. I remember crying out, “I am a faithful servant, where are you, God?” I felt that God was treating me unfairly. I was angry with God.

Looking back, those were the same times that I felt most grateful to God. My parents moved into a beautiful neighborhood, my mother-in-law was spared pain and suffering, my father-in-law went “cold turkey” and stopped drinking, I loved having my Granny live with us, and I had my second healthy child, and then my third child. Life was good. God was good. He placed people in my life at precisely the moment I needed them.

As I continue to carry my share of crosses to bear over the years, in my weakest moments, I still cry out for God. And then, I wait for the miracles... “If God leads me to it, He’ll get me through it.” For God may not always give me what I want, but He always gave me what I need. I pray that those who lost so much during the hurricanes experience God’s miracles too.

In Christ,