Gappers

Nancy Gardner

            It was the week before school was to begin and being a teacher, I was looking forward to a long weekend at the beach with some girlfriends.  The last hurrah.  On the Tuesday prior to that weekend, I became seriously ill.  I first thought it was a 24-hour intestinal virus.   But no, it was a terrible flare-up of my ulcerative colitis.  Not realizing this and being the controlling person I am, I decided that, even though I was in severe pain and vomiting for about 24 hours, I would wait before going to the emergency room.  The wait was too long. I ended up in the hospital for three days with dehydration and my colon completely inflamed.

            Shortly after being admitted into the hospital, a friend came just in time to give my husband Rocky a break from nursing me for over 24 hours. I didn’t want any more visitors because I knew I looked like death, and I was not very alert due to the medication. I told my friend to tell others from church not to come.  I didn’t think I needed anyone except Rocky.  That, however, was the last time I tried to be in control of the situation.  

            The next day another friend, who has a vivacious personality and speaks with a strong accent, stood at my door.  Being in a medicated stupor, I instantly worried about how I was going to understand her.  I began to recognize that I was no longer in control!  She was an angel sent by God.  After caring for my physical needs, she went home to make chicken broth for me.  Later another church friend showed up with a goody-bag containing a stuffed penguin.  Little did I realize how this penguin would impact my life.

             After being released from the hospital, I tried going back to work.  A few weeks later I had a relapse and had to take time off.  During my convalescence at home, I would awake almost every night at 3 a.m. and couldn’t go back to sleep.  So I would use this time to pray for people I knew with serious illnesses. 

            Then something unusual would happen.  Without realizing it, I would drift off into what might be called a “sleep daze”.  One night during this time God reminded me in a dream that people were praying for me also.  He said that they were standing in the GAP for me.  I asked him what GAP meant, and he said “God’s Anointed People”.  I said, “So they are Gappers!”  

            On another night God revealed that the penguin I had received represented Gappers.  In the movie, “The March of the Penguins”, once the eggs are laid, the female gives the eggs to the male, who keeps them protected between his feet.  Whenever winds and storms come, the “nursemaids” huddle together leaving no gap between them, which protects the eggs. I was told the little stuffed penguin represented the people who were standing in the GAP for me.  God told me that when I was better I was to give the penguin to someone else to represent that I was standing in the GAP -- praying for them.

            The Bible says God reveals himself to people in dreams.  I truly believe that was happening to me. There is no other explanation.  I’m certainly not clever enough to think all this up!

Another wonderful occurrence happened during my physical weakness.  Whenever I started to read scripture, I felt directed to passages which spoke to my exact needs at that time.  I, too, feel God was leading the way here as well – providing from His word the comfort and understanding that I needed.   Although God did not cause my illness, He surely did use it to teach me many things. God knew what I needed. Thank goodness my friends listened to God, not me, and came when they did. 

            May we all be Gappers for God.