Brenda Received Her Calling before Birth

     Brenda received her life’s calling before she was born, but didn’t realize it for years.     
     She was still in the womb when her mother was diagnosed with ovarian cancer. Her father and seven siblings took a vote and decided her mother should end the pregnancy so the cancer could be treated. Brenda’s mother objected. “It’s my child and I won’t do that.”     
     She died five months after Brenda was born.     
     Brenda told me, “My daddy never said my mother’s name. Never showed me pictures of her.”     
     But Brenda loved playing nurse as a child and dreamed of becoming one. The dream nearly evaporated when she took on the rigors of nursing school while raising three children. One day she sat in her car crying and wished she could talk with her mother. “I heard an audible voice: ‘She gave her life for you, and she didn’t have to.’” That spurred Brenda on, and she finished school.     
     I’m grateful she did, because today Brenda is an oncology nurse treating my daughter Ashley. As she told me her story, she had an epiphany: Her mother had cancer and gave her life for her; now Brenda gives her professional life to those with cancer. “I never thought about that before,” she said. “But I think It’s a calling.”     
     Brenda’s story took my breath away. I’ve never audibly heard God, but sometimes I get a thought to call someone, or an idea to act upon. When I do, things happen that - dare I say? - carry the fingerprints of the supernatural.     
     I think sometimes God nudges me.     
​     How about you?