Cup of Comfort for Faith

A thousand dollars was a lot of money to owe Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota. The biopsy was negative, thank God, but the insurance company didn’t pay the entire bill as expected. I tried to be positive; the insurance company had paid all but one thousand dollars, the biopsy was negative, my husband and I were both employed. We could pay it off but the bill came at an inconvenient time.

It was almost Christmas and I had not started shopping for our three teen-agers. Our oldest was a college freshman and our budget was stretched to the limit. My brother-in-law was trying to raise financial support in order to leave for a mission in France. I could think of many ways to spend those thousand dollars.

The next day I heard myself complaining about the bill. “Try to appeal,” my co-worker said. “What have you got to lose? Maybe it was a mistake.”

That night I scribbled a handwritten note to our insurance company asking them to reconsider their decision. My husband looked at the envelope with skepticism.

“They’ve already made their decision,” he said. “Just start making payments.”

Something in me wouldn’t quit without trying.

A week later an employee from the insurance company phoned and apologized for their mistake. They should have paid one hundred percent of the claim. “Merry Christmas!” she said before hanging up the phone.

We wrote a check for one thousand dollars to our brother-in-law’s mission fund. We gave it with a light and thankful heart. After all, the biopsy was negative, my husband and I are both employed, and our children are healthy and happy. It was, indeed, a merry Christmas.