It didn't start with Matthew... But I keep coming back to the beginning of my realization of what was happening...
God Incident, to me, means a bit of magic when you realize that a coincident...just...might...have...been...arranged...
MATTHEW was the first of many wonderful staff support helpers in the Bone and Joint Unit of the hospital where I had surgery...just a few days ago...
Matthew was also the only individual who I had the wonderful opportunity to see twice during my stay. Many or most, I don't know, staff are on 12 hour shifts. What that means for the patient is that somebody new is coming in every day and night to help you through all of the personal issues that arise...you know, like, helping to get you to the bathroom, checking basic vitals, pricking each and every finger, with, yes, my getting the choice of choosing "finger of the day (or night)! More on the Unit as a whole sometime soon.
My memory of meeting Matthew:
Matthew: Hi, I'm Matthew, I'm here to help
Me: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John...
Tracey (daughter of my Heart) I Knew You were going to do that.
Matthew: And did you know that in Hebrew Matthew means Gift of God.
Me: Immediately began to sing La, la...la la la...la...la..
Me: Can you tell me what the words are... I Love the Song (and now share the words with all of you!) Awake with a Happy Heart!
Matthew: Well, I don't know, I'm not Jewish, my parents and I are Catholic. They looked up what the name meant in Hebrew when they were thinking what name I would have...
Me: Ah, jumped to a conclusion...
Matthew: Laughing, and does it help that my girlfriend is Methodist?
God Had Used Matthew as His Messenger
God was with...me...
My one and only prayer was that God would send the people who I needed to meet, at the Exact Time I Needed to Meet Them...
And I'd Just Been Zapped!
What Some People Might Say is a Coincident
God adds a Zap to Know He's Arranged It!
It is not a Coincident
It is a
God Incident!
By the Way, I didn't zap that phrase... Many years ago, I was working with a small publisher who had written a book about losing her beloved in death. Afterward, little Zaps began, like her finding a Nickle which had some significance between the two... She coined the phrase in her book, which, while reading, proofreading and more...I just can't remember details, other than she lived in Canada... But reading her book, I knew what it could be like to be Zapped! I am so thankful that I worked on that book and to be able to share what she undoubtedly felt when she realized, God does Indeed...Watch and Listen...
You Know Folks, I had so many zaps during those short few days... that I didn't really realize what was going on... So I hope to share pieces with you, just as I was being...Zapped! And, Matthew, if you're reading this post...You'll Be Back...
I've been waking up every few hours or during the day getting up to move, just as Dr. Murphy and others have given guidance to ensure a long-term result to my hip replacement surgery. It's 2 AM... I think I'll go out and have a cup of tea...
By the way, since I've adopted his phrase, "You Know Folks," I downloaded one of his books...figured I'd get to know a little more about who I consider to be the only man able to bring us through the chaos we are experiencing... I'll talk about it later at Book Readers Heaven... but it might be awhile...Just Got to Tell You About another God Incident soon... I'm So Excited; Just Can't Hide It!
Preface: Many years ago, I was thrilled to first hear the musical, Fiddler on the Roof...and its story! I loved all the music, especially; and, at that time I wanted to share my love... I took several of my nieces and nephews to see the movie. Later, not to be cruel or attempt to hurt my feelings, they jokingly said that they couldn't figure out why I had invited them to see the movie. I was devastated at the time, didn't take offense, and yet, I realized that that story had been, perhaps, the first message--the first God Incident--in my life. And that I, alone, had experienced what, I believe, the creator of that entire presentation wanted to tell the world. My overwhelming, almost, response, to other family members apparently had not occurred. Maybe because of the age difference, or maybe perhaps, different... Indeed, I began to watch and analyze interactions with all connections and, at that time, I began wondering--was I different?
For some reason, I had, from that time on, "felt" something, I can't even describe it to this day... But it was definitely a connection, perhaps my very first time of feeling--Empathy...
From time to time, I've been asked to review relevant books, or begin to know a little about the writers I met online...and I was given bits and pieces from books, online conversations, meeting Jewish friends on the campus of where I worked for 37 years, and then to be so traumatized, with them, as I heard a march of white men in Virginia within recent years chant... "Jews Will Not Replace Us!" And I began to watch what just might be called in these times, just one of the conspiracy theories that those who do not know of God's love for each of us. has evolved into through manipulation, hatred, power...and prejudice.
Amy Grant became, for me, a favorite. For she took a Jewish song, presented both the Hebrew and English words...and I began to learn a little, even if I don't have a magical ear to easily learn and speak different languages... Because, as you Know, Words are Sooooo important, especially these days, when we have lost trust in words. People seem to actually create their own definition of what a word mean for "them." The lies seem almost transparent to me, so I often feel frustrated, not understanding the "Why?" of all that is being corrupted through manipulation of the simple words of our language, that all of us have used throughout our lives. More on that when I tell you about meeting Matthew...and considering the expansiveness of God's Love...I hope you'll be watching for that next post and spend a little time with me, Gabbie, another part of the woman you know as Glenda Bixler, Book Reviewer and Avid Reader.
You see, on Wednesday, May 18, 2022, I experienced a Miracle! Within the few hours of one day, my life had been changed... As of now, I don't know just how much it has. No, I'm not claiming an actual healing...merely, acknowledging all those people to whom God has given the gift to provide medical care...and just how impactful it can be as seen by an outsider.
As many of you know, I have been walking with support for about two years. I have learned a lot just from that experience alone.
But the day, my surgery for a left his replacement was officially scheduled on May 18th, until I had come out of the surgery and had been, into what is called the Post-surgery phase, I moved, in my own ranking of pain level from the ranking of evaluation of pain level (meaning that I placed the pain as it affected my life activities) on the entire left side from my hip down to the bottom of my foot, as being down from a ten to a two rank--within a matter of a few hours!
When I experienced the change in pain level, I immediately felt it could only be called a miracle... Just exactly what do you mean by that, Gabbie? you might rightfully ask... And That's all Right! I'm not sure I can express the impact to me... But, when My niece and daughter of my heart... arrived into my private room, I used the term, Exuberant to describe how I felt...and then I just kept on Talking, sharing about all of what I was feeling... So, now, as I write this on Sunday following the surgery, I looked up the definition of the word that came first to my mind. (filled with or characterized by a lively energy and excitement--Giddily Exuberant) And even today, although the reality of the entire time has not been consistently in that emotional high, I still experience the feelings of my euphoria and what happened during, perhaps, my most important time in my life... And I just needed to become Gabbie for a while... I want to document all that I experienced, based upon, what was a one-sentence prayer: Lord, please put the exact people during this procedure into my life, exactly when you wanted them to be there...
The very first event that I knew was a God Incident (received from the Holy Spirit) was the day I was diligently working to be released from the Hospital. I had been watching the news and CNN happened to be the only all-time mews channel that was available in the Hospital. Sometime during that last day, there was a short story, event, when two elderly Jewish men who each thought they might be the only "one" that was still alive who had survived the Holocaust. The video showed the two men meeting for that first time, hugging and recognizing in each other...we are survivors...
And We Must Bear Witness!
My ears perked up immediately. I knew that was a message to me on my last day, before leaving... I had been told to Bear Witness of the Events I experienced that time in the Hospital. I was so excited that I called the Central Desk and asked if they could find a pen and bring it to me, that I needed to write things down. Alicia was there almost immediately with a pencil indicating that's all she had... I was thrilled... I grabbed something and started scribbling notes. I didn't have a note pad, so I used whatever was first to be picked up and the issues, experiences just came right after each other and I wrote notes as quickly as possible, because, of course, I had not been able to take my non-prescription medications prior to my surgery. Specifically, I had been noticeably seeing improvements in my brain function related to memory as a result of starting on Neuriva. I had tried Prevagen and also saw a difference, but then an ad on the television, months ago, about one of the women characters and she was saying that she was not only a brain surgeon on television, but she was actually a brain surgeon. I decided then and there, on impulse, perhaps to switch. In any event, by the time I was off that med, I could already see that my efficiency was going backward and I was unable to "find" the words when I wanted to speak... (so in a way, I'm giving a little "review" for Neuriva. Those of you who may feel those moments of loss of "finding the right words that routinely came to us throughout our lives...but have diminished by aging. So even as i write, I'm hoping that all of you will be able to follow the message I want to give. But that's another story under the category of This Is What I've Learned... And, for me, Neuriva was the choice that increased my memory capacity...
I wrote so many notes and I'm hoping that I'll be able to read my penciled older-age writing and I've allowed Gabbie to become a more dominant part of "Me" to come out and share all that happened during the last few days! Hopefully, just as I found from the brief few minutes of watching two older Jewish gentlemen embracing in love that they had survived one of the worst tragedies in our living lifetimes, that you may at least gain one small gem from what I'll be sharing...
Because it is up to each of us to Bear Witness in these days of such division and increased violence and hatred among Americans who had, I thought, always been able to live together and see their place in "America" as was first established by immigrants who needed to find "sanctuary..."
Because, You know, America really isn't that sanctuary that we all dreamed about, believed in, and cared that diversity as a sign of the true meaning of God's love for humans...when we were created and born on earth...
And we MUST bear witness in Truth! In the Love of God for one another...and the total elimination of the hatred running rampant in the world today...Or else, there will be no more of the United States of America.
And there are many other writers who are writing "their witness" of what issues are affecting us all--often through the creation of a fictional novel using a major political or religious issue, that has been burned into their God-given creativity to work to bear their own "witness" to readers such as me, you, and all those who need to be able to visualize, to grasp, and perhaps hang on to reality...even through Fiction...and learn how to once again recognize Truth--The Truth of Knowing that God created all of us as equal in His Sight (not in our own prejudices from our individual pasts. Remember emember when He spoke, Thou Shall Have No Other Gods Before Me... And, Thou Shalt Not Bear False Witness Against Thy Neighbor... Two relevant Old Testaments Commandments that Are, I believe, relevant at this most chaotic time in, at least, my plus 70 years of living.
Remember, God Takes Each of Us JUST AS WE ARE! Giving us Free Will. We use that free will, hopefully, to help the world in which we live, be one of those, simply phrased...Love Thy Neighbor...
Upfront, I personally believe we are to be New Testament Christians. After all, Jesus died for us...and when those older guidance points were provided in the Old Testament, in the New, for instance... these were Matthew's Words:
“Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind. “This is the first and great commandment. “And the second is like unto it, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself” (Matthew 22:37–39).
Matthew was sent to me immediately after my operation as, one of the thousands, and maybe even millions, who provide patient support when we are most vulnerable...and in need of... That completion of a sentence should be filled in in your own words... In my case, it was replacing a deteriorating hip bone.
I didn't seek a miracle, I did not ask God for healing. I just asked that the right people that He wanted me to come to know, would come to me--whenever it was the right time...
By the Way, I have NO idea where this new blogging activity will take me... But then, I don't really need to... I'm trusting that words I write will speak to, maybe, just one of the readers from around the world... Just at the Right Time when the words are needed by any one of us...
God Bless and In His Love!
Be Patient if connections are not yet functioning...please... Now I have to measure every movement to ensure my replacement is not jarred in any way... Have a good day!
