Once again, I've gone AWOL from this blog for a few days. It certainly wasn't my intention or desire; but life spun and twisted in a variety of unexpected ways, slowly knocking blogging down my list of priorities until it finally fell off completely! I've missed it. I find that time spent blogging is valuable for helping me process events and emotions. After I write about something, I actually understand it better--and, often, value it more.
So, where have we been???
Sunday, we drove south to visit my nephew Jason who is in prison. It was really good to see him. He gets out of prison relatively soon--the beginning of June--and we are very excited for him and very hopeful and prayerful that he can make good choices and begin again to build his life in a positive way.
One interesting thing about visiting him... On Saturday night, Jeff attended a special worship service at a local church; and while there, he saw a woman that he knows. When she asked him whether he was coming back the next morning for their regular worship service, he replied by telling her that we were driving down to see Jason in prison, etc...and she responded by saying, "Prison? That's no place to be on a Sunday morning!" To which he replied, "On the contrary, prison is exactly the kind of place to be on a Sunday morning." The light bulb then went on in her head as she thought about Matthew 25 and the admonition to visit those in prison.
On Monday evening, Jeff and I spent our Date Night driving north to Winchester to visit our good friend Bob who was in the hospital there after emergency heart surgery on Saturday. It was fun to have time together in the car--just Jeff and I--and we got to talk about a lot of things. It was also really good to see Bob and his wife Cindy, and we are unspeakably grateful that God protected Bob's life on Saturday and helped the doctors keep him alive when his heart had stopped beating. Bob and Cindy are relatively new friends for us, but we already feel a very deep heart-level bonding with them. We have gleaned wisdom, contentment, joy, and insight from them in our time together; and we're not at all ready for those times with Bob to come to an end! I think one of the things we appreciate most about them is how they focus so intently on Jesus and how effectively they strip away so many of the outward facades of religion that can hinder a pure relationship with God.
As far as Matthew 25 goes, we've done the "visit those in prison" part, the "visit the sick" part...now we need to find a stranger and take him in, or find a naked person and give him clothes! :)
I was thinking further about these verses last night as I was caring for Josiah who was throwing up off and on all night and into this morning. Josiah HATES to throw up; and when he can't hold it in any longer, he screams and screams as he vomits. I don't know how to help him to understand that it's actually OK to throw up; it doesn't need to be such a big deal, and he doesn't need to get so worked up about it. But worked up, he does get! And besides the physical part of caring for him (changing his clothes, cleaning his body, bringing him water to rinse out his mouth, giving him medicine when appropriate, changing the dirty sheets on his bed, doing multiple loads of laundry in the middle of the night, giving him a bath--Jeff took care of this one, hugging him, and tenderly rubbing his back, etc.), there is the huge job of emotionally caring for him and comforting him.
As I was trying to keep a positive attitude about all of this in the middle of the night last night, I had a few thoughts...well, actually, lots of thoughts, since there was so much time to think! :) But one of the thoughts was that I don't have to go far from home to find ways to fulfill Matthew 25. When Jesus says, "Whatever you did to the least of these, you did to me," there's no reason that "the least of these" can't refer to my own children. When I clothe them, give them food and drink, care for them when they're sick and afraid, I'm actually obeying this command of Jesus. This is hugely comforting for me because I so often long for bigger ways to serve. Last night, I was reminded of how important these "small" acts of service--here in my own home, to my own family--really are.
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2 comments:
I can surely relate as Houston was up all night throwing up. What you said about longing for bigger ways to serve reminded me of a passage from a book I just read by Sheila Walsh called A Love so Big: Anchoring Your Child to the Heart of God. In the chapter entitled Joy she writes, "I had a conversation with a woman at a conference that made me very sad. She said, "I want to do something with my life. I want to do something worthwhile like you."
"What do you do at the moment?" I asked.
"Well, I don't have a job at the moment. I have four children."
"Wow Sounds like a job to me!" I said.
"I meant I want to do something for God, " she answered.
"I can't think of anything that God would care more about than loving and treasuring four little lives," I persisted."
The woman in this story never did get the point that raising her children t love God was just as important of a ministry (perhaps more) as any other. I sometimes have the same longing and it helps me to remember that being a godly mother is a full-time ministry in its own.
Misty, that's great! Thanks for sharing that with me! :)
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