No Appointment

When I entered my fifties, I remember seeing the quiz online.
I don’t usually take quizzes, but this one was about heart health.
Knowing that women need to take care of their heart, I decided to take the quiz.
There were so many questions I could not answer because I don’t know my history.

At the end of the quiz, there was a link to the Cardiology Group of our local hospital.
I thought about making an appointment.
Even though I did just fine on the quiz, not knowing my history was a factor to consider.
I looked over the doctors at the practice and picked one.

I chose a woman doctor who was close to my age.
I chose her because she had D.O. after her name.
I decided that I would go to see her and made my appointment.
I did not have any reason to go, except I wanted to be proactive as I got older.

I have been seeing her annually for the past ten years.
It is good to see someone who takes a woman’s heart health seriously.
She orders routine blood work each year.
I have my annual EKG in her office.

I usually see her in February, which is Heart Health Month.
I make the next year’s appointment as I leave.
I had the appointment card on my bulletin board.
My appointment was scheduled for the President’s Day holiday.

It was an early appointment.
I had the results of my blood work in a folder.
Her office only calls if there is a problem.
I did not hear from them, so I was thankful that the visit would just be my annual checkup.

I left before my husband to make sure that I got there on time.
Morning traffic can be heavy, even for our area.
However, there was no school because of the holiday.
The traffic was light.

I parked the car.
I walked inside.
Already, the waiting room was filling up with people.
I waited to be called to the desk.

I gave my name.
I gave my birth date.
I gave my address.
I don’t have you scheduled for an appointment today, the woman behind the desk said.

I reached in the back pocket of my purse.
I pulled out the appointment card.
Oh, dear, the woman said looking at the date on the card.
It seems that someone made the appointment but never entered it in the system, she admitted.

Please wait here, she said as she went to talk to the doctor I was scheduled to see.
I am so terribly sorry about all of this, the woman said.
The doctor is here, but she is leaving to do testing over at the hospital.
You can see the nurse practitioner today, or we can schedule another appointment.

This has never happened to me before, I told the woman behind the desk.
The person who wrote this card for you is no longer with the practice, the woman said.
As soon as I took it back to the doctor, she recognized the handwriting on the card.
I am so terribly sorry.

I was thankful that I was only there for my annual visit.
I imagine that if it had been an emergency, I would have been seen by another doctor.
It was not an emergency.
I preferred to wait for my doctor, the one I see every year.

The woman was able to schedule me for another appointment in two weeks.
The woman asked if she could throw away the incorrect card.
Of course, I said.
I watched her rip the card up ceremoniously and toss it in the trash.

As I drove to run some errands before heading home, I thought about what had happened.
If fingers were pointed, they would point to the woman who is no longer working there.
Pointing fingers would not solve anything.
There was still no appointment scheduled for me that day.

There was no place for me.
The doctor has all the time in the world for the person in front of her.
However, on this day, I was not scheduled for an appointment.
There was a mix up and I had to leave without seeing her.

It is never that way with God.
God is always available.
God always has time.
God never turns us away.

That is such a comforting thought.
Because of Jesus, we have total access to the Father.
We do not have to make an appointment to speak to God.
We do not have to wait until He is free in order to spend time with Him.

Thinking about God’s omnipresence staggers my mind.
He is present with me, and with you, and with everyone at the same time.
Our human minds cannot comprehend that truth.
We are finite beings, living in the confines of time; God is infinite and outside of time.

We often have to multi task.
Mothers of small children know what it is like to hear, Mom, from many little voices at once.
God has no such problem.
God is always available, at any moment.

I was not angry this morning.
Things like this happen, though never at this office before.
The situation was the antithesis of the God I love and serve.
How thankful I am that God is always there, ready and willing to spend time with me.

I can rest in Him.