Betty’s Microphone Miracle – a Divine Synchronicity

My sweet mother, Betty Marie Lyman Rasmussen, is now 94 years old.
She fills her days cross stitching beautiful heirloom pieces,
playing solitaire on her iPad, and reading Christian novels.

Sometimes she thinks she is insignificant, and wonders why she’s still here,
because, she says, “I’m no use to anybody anymore – I can’t do much of anything.”
I tell her she’s still here for Love.
She’s got seven children (and their spouses),
36 grandchildren,
and 76 great grandchildren.
That’s a lot of love.

We take her to church on Sundays.
This week, feeling stronger, she chose to use her walker rather than the wheelchair,
even though the corridor from the church door to the chapel seems like miles for her to walk.
Making her way to the pew, she parked her walker in the aisle.

As the meeting began, the Bishop’s Counselor apologized to the congregation
that the microphone at the pulpit was malfunctioning, for reasons unknown.
It was giving off loud static – and none of their repair efforts had been effective.
So they turned it off and did a work-around, bringing in a hand held microphone on a long cord.

Today was Fast and Testimony Meeting –
where congregation members are invited to share our
testimonies of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, as inspired by the Holy Spirit.

And today, my dear mother, without a word to me,
saw her opportunity, and being unencumbered without the wheelchair,
but empowered by her walker, stood up and walked up the aisle to bear her testimony.
Thankfully, the Bishop saw her coming, and brought the microphone to her.

There, before several hundred people in the chapel,
my dear, sweet, frail mother turned and stood as tall as she could,
and told us all we were beautiful.

She expressed gratitude for the malfunctioning of the main microphone,
and the availability of the corded microphone,
because it could be handed to her,
as she could not walk up the steps to the podium to bear her testimony.

She expressed her gratitude for her membership in the Church
through her 94 years on this earth, and all it has meant to her.
She expressed gratitude for the truths in the Book of Mormon and other scriptures,
which she has read multiple times in her life
And she expressed gratitude for the multiple times she has been
healed through the power of the Lord…
that her life would have been so very different without it…
she may not have lived even past the age of 4,
but that would be a story for another day.

I took Mother home after Sacrament meeting,
then returned for the rest of the Sunday Services.
The Bishop stopped to speak with me –
He said the microphone was working perfectly as soon as the meeting ended…
and he felt sure that the microphone malfunction was specifically a blessing for Betty…
a divine synchronicity, creating conditions to be just right for her to
bear her testimony and speak the gratitude she felt in her heart.

I am grateful for my mother,
and how she “walks by faith, nothing wavering”.

I am grateful to know in my heart that none of us are ever too old,
or too young, or too disabled, or too insignificant
for God to know our needs, our hopes and our dreams,
and to bless us with a little miracle now and then.

Today, I am specifically grateful for Betty’s Microphone Miracle.

Blessings,
Jo Lyn