She never knew how she got through the day at work, waiting for the doctor's office to call. Even though she was pretty sure she knew the answer, she was holding out hope that she was wrong. 

 

Finally, the call came. The sweet, upbeat nurse on the other end said what she was not really ready to hear: "Congratulations, Jean! The test came back positive! You are pregnant!" As she started to cry, quietly the nurse said, "Oh dear. I guess you aren't very excited are you?" 

 

"I'll be ok,” she replied and hung up the phone. 

 

Stunned and alone, she knew she couldn't stay at the office. She called her sister-in-law and asked her to come get her and take her back to her brother's house. She told no one else where she was going. She had no idea who to call, but she had to talk to someone. She had told her sister-in-law that she was upset and needed to leave work. Finally, she called her best friend and blurted out the news. Her friend could tell her what to do! Hadn't she helped her through some of her craziest teenage stunts? Of course, her friend had also been the one to talk her into those stunts! Cindy told her, "Don't tell anyone else that you are pregnant. Not a soul! I will pick you up tomorrow and take you to get an abortion. You CANNOT have a baby!"

 

For the first time in Jean's life, she told her friend, "No! Don't you ever mention that word to me again! I can't believe you would even suggest that to me." Then she hung up. She was shocked that she had actually stood up to her friend. She rarely stood her ground with her friend. 

 

She was still feeling desperate. However, she didn't know to whom she could turn. She was still reeling from the news and trying to figure out what she should do when the phone rang. Her sister-in-law told her that her doctor was on the phone. She hadn't told anyone where she was going. No one at work or the doctor's office knew her brother and sister-in-law's name or number at work or at the doctor's office. 

 

Jean felt a lot of respect for this doctor. He had been very kind to her. He wasn't her normal family doctor she had seen since childhood. He didn't know her family at all. She answered the phone and the doctor said, "Jean, I know you are upset, but I had to talk to you. Please don't do anything rash over the weekend. Do you understand me? Talk to your parents. I am sure they will help you through this, but PROMISE me that you won't do anything you can't undo." 

 

She was stunned. "How did you find me?" she asked. "I didn't leave my number with your office or give you my brother's name." The doctor was equally puzzled. "I have no idea. I have a plain white piece of paper on my desk with this phone number and your name on it. I have wanted to talk to you since I saw the results of your blood test. I just thought my nurse left this note for me. Jean, I know you will be all right. Please, just talk to your parents." 

 

This hit home with her. She didn’t understand how, but in the midst of so much chaos there were three things she knew to be emphatically true. 

 

 

• She knew the doctor was right in what he was saying - she could count on her parents. 

• She knew it wouldn't be easy. Although she didn't recognize it was God, He was getting through to her. She HAD to have this baby. 

• Finally, she knew that an angel had to have put that piece of paper on the doctor’s desk so he could reach out to her at just that moment.

 

Even though Jean wasn't serving God at that time, He made Himself heard and He sent that doctor to reassure her that things would be all right. This was a defining moment in my life. Jean was my mother. She was only nineteen years old and was working for one of the largest advertising agencies in the country producing T.V. commercials in Los Angeles and New York. She was poised to achieve success and enviable status, all before her twenty-first birthday. The odds were stacked against my life even before I took my first breath.

 

At that moment and time I couldn’t fight for my destiny, but God could and He did. He got through to my mother and she fought for me against all of the pressure, the “what if’s” and the uncertainty. Sometimes your defining moment comes at great risk, but if you don’t trust God, you will never know all that He has planned for your life. He makes all things beautiful. 

 

All around, Hope is springing up from this old ground

Out of chaos life is being found in me

 

You make beautiful things 

You make beautiful things out of the dust 

You make beautiful things out of us. 

 

 “Beautiful Things” by Nicole Binion