Years of the Locusts

I could not believe my eyes as I walked into the Nursing Home room. Mom K was sitting up in the recliner, her hair nicely poofed. She smiled a huge smile of recognition, and spoke in full, coherent sentences. I handed her her knitting, and she instantly saw the dropped stitches from the day before.
"Can you fix them?" I asked.
"Of course," she said.
She slowly picked up the dropped stitches while I told her about my upcoming trip to Chicago. While I was there, an aide came in, and said,"Time for your hug!" She gave Mom K a huge hug and then turned to me, "Hugs are free!" she said, "Would you like one?"
She gave me no choice but embraced me in a massive hug.
Then she wandered away, while Mom K continued picking up her dropped stitches.

I know this is a respite, not likely a permanent improvement in the deadly onslaught of Alzheimers. There is only so much one can expect for an 89 year old woman. But as I watched her slowly reknitting the dropped stitches, I thought about regaining what we have lost. I thought of the verses in the Bible that tell us believers will reclaim the "years the locusts have eaten." So much of life is squandered, misused, abused, and destroyed, but we who walk in the hope and light of The Lord know that one day, those lost moments will be reclaimed. Those dropped stitches will be gathered up again.

"When I return," I said to Mom K, as I kissed her goodbye, "I hope to see my scarf will have made great progress."
"You and me both," laughed Mom K.

Joel 2:25-26,28-29,32 (NIV)
“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten---the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm---my great army that I sent among you. [26] You will have plenty to eat, until you are full, and you will praise the name of the Lord your God, who has worked wonders for you; never again will my people be shamed. [28] “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. [29] Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. [32] And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance, as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls.


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