Isaiah 49:15

Wayne grabbed his swimsuit and loped towards the door. “Bye, Mom, I’m going to my friend’s house, he said.
“Hold on just one minute!” Pat said, jumping in front of her teenage son.
With a shake of her finger and a smile, Pat said, “I want you to call me bby noon tomorrow.” She handed him a scrap of paper so he could write down the friend’s number. When he was gone, she placed the number on her headboard with the intention of taking it to work in the morning.

The following day at work, Pat anticipated a call from her son. But noon turned into 1:00, which rolled into 2:00, and still he hadn’t called. She fished through her wallet to retrieve the friend’s number and then slapped her knee as she realized she had left it at home. “Now what do I do?” Pat fretted. As a shot in the dark she phoned the number she was best able to recall.
After two rings, a man answered.
“Hello,” Pat said, timidly. “Is Wayne Brown there, by any chance?”
“Let’s see, Wayne Brown, Wayne Brown…” the man repeated slowly, as he was thinking.
“I don’t seem to recall any Wayne Brown having come by today,” he said.
The man said, “How old is Wayne?” Pat looked at the phone quizzically. What a strange question!
“How old?” She said. “Sixteen.” She wished she hadn’t answered, but something impelled her.
Four hours later, a coworker answered the telephone and handed it to Pat. “Hello?” Pat said as she placed the receiver to her ear. Much to her relief, it was Wayne. “Mom!” he cried, “how did you know to call me at the dentist’s office?”
Pat stood up her seat. “What are you talking about?” she laughed. Wayne explained the story. “Mom friend needed to have his braces removed, and asked me to go along with him. I said, ‘Why not?’ When I stepped inside the office the dentist said: “Your mother is waiting your call.”
Pat had indeed dialed a “wrong number.” The dentist was on a lunch break. Ordinarily he would not be answering a phone, but this number rang on his private line so he picked it up.

This took place in Archorage, Alaska, where there is a quarter of a million people with an untold number of telephone lines crossing through. For Pat, though, she needed just one call, from her son, and by God, she got it.

Comment:
Although the lines of communication between Pat and her son, Wayne, were severed accidentally, their spiritual bonds did not cease. They were miraculously re-united in a way they never could have anticipated. Our lives are a series of ups and downs, of successes and mishaps. It is beyond our power to connect the dots on solve the endless puzzle of our lives. Only God can do this, and He will do so if only we let Him.

Fr. Hugh Duffy