How Will It All Turn Out?
Mother and I drove to Fairview, Oklahoma, to see Aunt Marie Siemens for a visit. Aunt Marie was in her 80’s and our visit was filled with the stories of her life. She sat in her chair, a tall woman. No matter how strong the winds blew against her, they did not diminish her faith or strength. As she remembered and told us incidents, it was if she didn’t see us, but looked past us to the journey of steps she walked.
After each little story, we heard the comment/question, “And I wondered how it would all turn out.”
Aunt Marie was married to Dr. Jacob VI Siemens, Dad’s older brother. Aunt Marie, also a chiropractor, a strong lady with a stronger faith in God, read the many textbooks that enabled Uncle Jake to become a chiropractor. Uncle Jake was blinded through accidents as a young boy.
Curious as to his sightless world, as a child, I walked around the house with my eyes closed. Feeling my way, hesitantly taking steps. I felt the braille publications he 
read from, and wondered how he could discern the paper bumps into words. How did the juicy red watermelon taste to him in the summer? Or Aunt Marie’s fresh-baked bread? I tried eating with my eyes closed, and found it was not as easy as Uncle Jake seemed to make it. He was not able to see the two beautiful daughters Virginia and Helen that were born to them or his grandchildren.
Aunt Marie told us about accepting Jesus Christ as her Savior, and how her older sister had not yet, so she had to wait until she did….I can hear her yet, 30 years later, “And I wondered how it would all turn out.”
So many times in my family, when money was tight, I know that Aunt Marie’s question was in the back of our minds. When we were young, we had a family meeting (pow-wow) and determined that although Dad, delivering mail, wanted to have a Coke each day for a nickel, the price was a constant. Was it wise for our budget for him to spend this amount every day? This was in the 1930’s.
When my brother, Jim, was in the hospital with a concussion after being thrown from a pickup, delivering papers, I know my parents thought, “And I wondered how it would all turn out.”
He recovered, in time, but it was frightening. Physical life or death takes on gargantuan import in our lives.
My Dad, Herman Siemens, became ill when I was about 8 years old. He needed to travel from Clinton OK to Topeka KS on the train to have surgery. I remember the tears and the goodbye. Dad didn’t think he would live. My Mom was left at home, separated from her love, to care for three small children, the cow, the chickens and the garden. “And I wondered how it would all turn out.”
When Dad’s grandparents were raising their children in Oklahoma on a homestead farm, they had no meat. Dad’s great-grandfather saw that his children were starving and brought a butchered calf to help feed them. When Dad’s father noticed that the suitcase slipped from his grasp at the train station, he knew his body no longer functioned. He would not be able to travel and preach God’s Word. “And I wondered how it would all turn out.”
Every family has many heartaches and ask, “And we wondered how it would all turn out.”
Yet, their faith in God provides the strength to know that the ultimate victory is theirs. For the journey on this earth is not all there is, it is simply time of strengthening, a time of testing and a time of learning.
I John 5:1-5 (The Message)
Every person who believes that Jesus is, in fact, the Messiah, is God-begotten. If we love the One who conceives the child, we’ll surely love the child who was conceived. The reality test on whether or not we love God’s children is this: Do we love God? Do we keep his commands? The proof that we love God comes when we keep his commandments and they are not at all troublesome. Every God-begotten person conquers the world’s ways. The conquering power that brings the world to its knees is our faith. The person who wins out over the world’s ways is simply the one who believes Jesus is the Son of God.
Aunt Marie, thank you for faith in Jesus Christ, and your question that needs but one answer. Your life was lived by trusting Him. You knew the answer to your rhetorical question, for you knew our Savior. And now we know that Jesus holds the key and we KNOW how it will all turn out.