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. She loved her son, but knew what he could get up to, if she didn’t keep a tight rein on him.
With a shake of her finger and a smile, Pat said, “I want you to call me by noon tomorrow.” She handed him a scrap of paper so he could write down the friend’s number. Wayne assured her he would. 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. Pat was hysterical with anxiety over the safety of her son. She fished through her wallet to retrieve the friend’s number and then slapped her knee as she realized she had lost it. “Now what do I do?” Pat fretted as she was brought to the brink of tears.. All she could do was pray to God for help. As a shot in the dark, and asking God to guide her, she phoned a number that she hoped might be the one she wrote down on the scrap of paper before she lost it.
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 continued, “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 raised herself up on her seat. “What are you talking about?” she couldn’t control herself, laughing with sheer joy. God had answered her ardent prayer.

Wayne explained the story. “Mom, my friend needed to have his braces removed, and asked me to go along with him for moral support. 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 the phone, but this number rang on his private line so he picked it up. God sure loves to reward a mother’s love. Scripture says: “Can a mother forget her nursing child? Even if that were possible, I will never forget you” ( Isaiah 49: 15 ). God did not forget Pat in her need.

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

Story provided by Pat Brown.

Comment:
Although the lines of communication between Pat and her son, Wayne, were severed accidentally, their bond did not cease. Our lives are a series of ups and downs, of successes and mishaps. It is beyond our power to connect the dots or 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