I returned to the office today from a 2 day pastoral visit in Boonesboro, MD. There's a sweet elderly lady there who used to attend a church I formerly pastored, that is in a nursing home and was, and maybe still is, in the last stages of life. Her and I connected at a heart level that will forever bind us together - more like a mother/son relationship than a pastor/congregant. A relationship that has taught me a great deal more about living, than I was ever able to teach her about God.
She has gotten quite feeble, and spends a great deal of her time in bed. She needs assistance for almost everything she is required or needs to do. There is one aid there who is particularly 'rough around the edges' whom my friend has taken a special liking to, simply because she could tell this aids life had been tough and she needed someone to care for, just like my friend needs people to care for her, only different - if you catch my drift.
Yesterday, as I sat with my friend she was lamenting to me that she just wasn't sure what else she could do for God. then, in the course of our conversation, this particular aids name came up and my friend told me about a visit she had from her late one night.
The aid came in sat beside her and told about how lonely she was, how much she wanted a family, and how know one seemed to understand her. they talked and wept together for some time- and then my friend prayed for her. Several days later, again late at night, this aid agin crept into my friends room, sat down beside her and gave her a tender kiss on the cheek, thanking her for loving her and for being her friend.
I looked at my feeble, tiny, bedridden friend and asked her if she was aware of the power of God's love through her? No, she could no longer do all the things she used to do; but that certainly didn't mean she was of no use to God or His kingdom. She had touched a life with his love; and then I proceeded to tell her of all the lives I could suddenly think of that she had deeply effected over the years, not by her actions, but by her sweet loving spirit and friendship.
You could almost see the light coming back into her eyes, as new hope filled her heart.
There's a great lesson there for us all. We tend to think it's in the doing for God that we receive our greatest sense of worth. When in truth it's in the loving care for another, even when we're feeble and bedridden and the end of days is in sight.
PJ
2 comments:
Touching peoples hearts is a gift. Most people who have it don't know it and most people who think they have it, are off the mark. Glad you are back. Glad Ruth got to spend this time with you. I know she loved it.
God has blessed you. And then uses you to Bless others. I have now been touched and Blessed by your visit with Ruth. The blessing will continue, Monday afternoon Bethesda Ladies Bible study too will be blessed.
The Ladies look forward to hearing Pastor John's blogs.
Thank-You,
Agape,
Meshi
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