Bits and Pieces of Sun

After a day and a half of nonstop pouring rain, the sun appeared in bits and pieces. I dashed outside for two walks, to make up for the previous day of slouching in the recliner, unable to put even one toe out on that flooding pavement. Then I hurried out to visit Mom K in the Nursing Home, before the deluge began again.

She was not doing well. Bed sores, pain, trouble swallowing. I sat and read to her from the Gospel of John, while we waited for the Hospice Nurse to come and advise on the best course of action. One aide walked in and ended up chatting with me for half an hour. She told me her story of how she had had a bout of severe depression, and then heard God's voice telling her that her life's work was with old people in nursing homes. She obeyed that call, and the crushing depression lifted. She continues to look upon her work with people like my mother-in-law as a calling, a ministry, sanctioned by God. As she talked with me, Mom K reached a hand out to her. Mom K is no longer talking, but she seemed to agree with the aide that God had called her to this often sad and difficult work.

When I left, a nurse walked with me to the door. I can't even leave without the staff keying the door code. They must have had some of the patients with Alzheimers escape and no longer tell family members the locked door code. I think I looked a little dismayed. It had not been easy, seeing Mom K so vulnerable and in pain.
"This is the progression of the disease," she told me, "It is hard, I know."
"Yes, it is," I said.

Still, there had been smatterings of joy in the midst of all that misery. Mom K stopped moaning when I read, "For God so loved the world, that He sent His only begotten son, that whosoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life." And then there was the hopeful story of the aide hearing the call of God. In a way, the aide's story was just like the day. Dark clouds, drips of rain still spattering as the breeze tugged at sodden leaves...but bits of sunlight catching the edges of the treetops, lightening the dreary sky.

It is supposed to rain all week, with bits and pieces of sun forecast to break through. I will keep my eyes open for the sun.

Judges 5:31 NIV
[31] “So may all your enemies perish, Lord! But may all who love you be like the sun when it rises in its strength.” ....




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