Mercy

A bright red cardinal perched on the branches of a tree with rust-colored leaves last Friday. Everything else about that day was gray, gloomy and heavy, including the cloud-laden sky. It was that day that we found out Mom’s cancer had spread to her lungs. I found the lyrics of an old Amy Grant song from the ‘80s, “Ask Me,” going through my mind: “Ask me if I think there’s a God up in the heavens / where did He go in the middle of my pain?” The resolution to these questions come at the end of the song: “Mercy, mercy in the middle.” It was these few words that came to mind when I saw the cardinal. Red,...