I ended up in the emergency room this weekend.

I ended up in the emergency room this weekend. What happened there is something I'll never forget.

Ironically, I was on a first date. We'd been talking for several days and were looking forward to finally meeting.

When he arrived at the restaurant, I could immediately tell something was wrong.

He suspected he was having a kidney stone. He'd had them before and knew exactly what was coming. If you've ever experienced a kidney stone, you know the pain can be excruciating.

A few minutes later, I was heading to the emergency room with a man I barely knew.

The waiting room was overflowing. Every chair was occupied, and people lined the walls. It was obvious we were in for a long wait.

As we waited, his symptoms worsened. He was shaking, doubled over in pain, and on the verge of vomiting.

It's hard to know how to comfort someone in that kind of pain when you've only known them for a few hours.  I rubbed his back, tried to reassure him, and even pleaded with the receptionist to move him higher on the priority list because of the severity of his pain. There was nothing she could do.

Then a woman walking by us. She looked at him and stopped suddenly.

She gently placed her hand on his shoulder and began praying for his pain to be removed and for healing to be restored to his body. She ended with the words, "God is in control."

Honestly, it felt a little strange. We weren't in church. We didn't know this woman. And we certainly hadn't asked her to pray for us.

But something inside me knew we needed to receive her words, so I quietly thanked her.

About twenty minutes later, my date looked up and said, "I think the stone passed."

I told him he was crazy. There was no way we were leaving before he saw a doctor.  But ten minutes later, he was completely pain-free.

Against every instinct I had, we walked out of the emergency room and resumed our date as if nothing had happened.

Later that evening, he told me he'd never had a kidney stone resolve without medical intervention.

Did that woman heal him?

I can't say with certainty what happened that afternoon. Maybe it was coincidence. Maybe the stone passed at exactly the right moment. Or maybe God chose to work through the compassion and faith of a total stranger.

What I do know is this: two people walked into that emergency room feeling desperate and helpless. One woman reminded us we weren't alone.

Her kindness brought me back to my own ten-year journey through infertility. During those years, I experienced child loss, heartbreak, and moments when I wondered if I would ever become a mother. Looking back now, I can see countless moments where God was quietly guiding and protecting me through people and circumstances I never could have planned.

I talk about those moments in my recent podcast conversation with RyanReichert. Whether you call it God, faith, providence, or simply grace, I hope you'll listen and consider moments when a Higher Power has quietly shown up in your own life.