Hi Sweet Friends,
You may find this hard to believe; but in the nursing home world, Kevin and I are considered quite attractive. Among those who are mostly blind, mostly deaf, and mostly confused, we are thought of as a real catch. It’s always an ego booster for me when we visit our precious friends at the nursing home every week. Some of the sweet men have told Kevin that they will take me if something happens to him. I can’t tell you how much better Kevin sleeps at night knowing I will be taken care of. And what a relief for me! We joke with our friends there a lot. They are treasures to us, and we love them and have learned so much from them. Many there have asked Kevin to speak at their funerals, and he has. He is often their last pastor in this life to love and teach them and pray over them. He is dear to them, and they are to him. We speak of heaven often at the nursing home. It is the next dream for many of them. Our sweet 102 year old friend, Mrs. Grace, asks Kevin to pray every week for God to take her home, and he does. She is in pain and so weary, and it just really hurts to be here. He speaks truth to her and comforts her with the reality of what is next on her journey. She knows the truth of the gospel and waits with hope and faith that will soon be sight. We speak often of the gospel that assures healing and eternity with our Savior and those that are already there. We make promises to find each other and rejoice and worship together. We talk about how good we will look and feel. We help them dream of the reality to come. I recently read a quote by Ram Dass that said, “We’re all just walking each other home.” That’s our reality. Reality is a vital perspective. We must seek it and hang on to it and fight to believe it at all cost. We must remind each other. It is truth that sustains and gives us the reason to not just hang on, but rejoice. And it’s not our truth we must fight for, it’s our Maker’s truth, what He has shown us about Himself and our story and His story in us through His Word. Let’s fight to hang on to reality together today by reminding ourselves of what is true.
Mr. Joe is another sweet friend at the nursing home. He doesn’t remember how old he is, I assume mid 80’s, but he has jet black hair, all natural. He can’t tell you the names of his daughters, but his childhood horses were named Old Red and Big John. He doesn’t know where he is, but he can tell you with much detail about his farm growing up, the milking of cows and swimming across the river. He is gracious and funny. He laughs easily and hugs freely. I would say he is mostly content, especially when he realizes the reality of having a place to stay for the night. We go through the same scene with all of the same movements and words every Tuesday night when we lead a church service at the nursing home. It’s like being in the movie “Groundhog Day.” I go to Mr. Joe when the service is over and ask him if he would like me to walk him to his room. He always looks at me with surprise and says, “You mean I get to stay here? I was wondering what I was gonna do.” It always makes me sad to think he didn’t know he was safe and taken care of and had a place waiting for him. He always sounds relieved and asks if I know how to get there. I say, “I’ll take you. Don’t forget your horse,” and we grab his walker and start shuffling down the hall. We talk about his old times, which is all he can remember, and wave at people in their rooms as we waddle by. He’s always surprised to see his name on the door and then exclaims with joy at the sight of his room. It’s new every time. He looks around and says, “This is really nice. Thanks so much.” I think he thinks I’m the innkeeper. Sometimes he says, “Looks like somebody has been in the bed.” To which I always reply, “I think it was you, Mr. Joe.” I always tell him he can stay as long as he wants and if he ever leaves, I will come and find him. I leave him with a settled mind and heart; his reality is that he is taken care of. He just needs reminding. I would love to be like Mr. Joe when I realize the reality of whose I am and my condition and my destination. I would love to clap my hands with excitement like I have seen him do when it hits me, once again, that this is a bigger story than just my story, and all is well. I am loved, I am accepted, I am enough, and I have a home because of Jesus. We all struggle remembering reality, but don’t despair. God has been faithful to tell us in scripture of those who walked before us and struggled to believe and remember also. I want to learn from them.
The story of Joseph in the book of Genesis is a great study on things not being as they appear. Joseph was envied and disliked by his jealous brothers and sold in to slavery by them. While his grieving father mourned the falsely reported death of his favorite son, Joseph was changing the world. He was chosen as a slave to be the right-hand man of a captain of Egypt. He was then falsely accused and thrown in prison. He was blessed with an interpretation of dreams and became Pharaoh’s trusted assistant. He was given rule of the kingdom and faithfully worked to save, not only all of Egypt, but his own estranged family as well. It all came crashing down on Joseph’s brothers when they came begging for wheat to keep their father’s household from perishing from the famine. When they realized Joseph was the one who had control over their very lives, they knew they were done for. Of course, Joseph would seek revenge and destroy them. But not so. What looked like a horror story of betrayal and deceit and suffering and wasted years was so much more. God was saving a whole nation. God was preserving the people from whom our Savior would come. Joseph said to his brothers in Genesis 50:20, “And as for you, you meant evil against me, but God meant it for good in order to bring about this present result, to preserve many people alive.” There was a bigger reality going on than what they could see. There always is.
And what of our old friend, Elijah, in I Kings 18 and 19? He had just called down fire from heaven to consume a sacrifice to prove there is only one, true God, and then we see him literally running for his life from an evil queen. After being the voice of God to a nation, he says to God in 19:4, “It is enough; now, O Lord, take my life, for I am not better than my fathers.” In verse 10, God asks Elijah what he is doing in despair, and he states, “I have been very zealous for the Lord, the God of hosts; for the sons of Israel have forsaken Your covenant, torn down Your alters, and killed Your prophets with the sword. And I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away.” He repeats it again in verse 14. He believes this is where it has all led. This is where being zealous for the Lord has gotten him. He is all that’s left who proclaim God’s name, and please just let him die. All hope is gone. Really? Is that what is really going on? God tells Elijah in verses 15-18 that there is work yet to be done. God has 7,000 men in Israel that have not bowed their knee to worship the false god Baal. 7,000 have remained true to God and will continue His story for that nation. Elijah believed he was the last faithful man on earth. He believed he was utterly alone and he wanted to die. He just didn’t know the reality of the situation. He didn’t see the bigger story of God at work.
We’ve all known the story of Jonah since our youth. God asks him to go warn an enemy nation of Israel to turn to God or be destroyed. Jonah wants nothing to do with it and tries to disappear. Aren’t we humans foolish? Who can hide from God? God gets Jonah’s attention by allowing suffering inside a great fish which Jonah describes in great detail. He agrees to walk in obedience and goes to Nineveh to warn of the wrath to come unless they repent. Jonah’s greatest fear is realized. The people of Nineveh believe Jonah and repent and turn from their evil and worship God Almighty. Then Jonah throws a fit. He wanted the destruction of these people, not their salvation. He knew that God is a gracious and compassionate God and abundant in loving kindness. It’s not fair. They don’t deserve forgiveness. Jonah suddenly believes life isn’t worth living because things didn’t play out like he thought they should, and he begs God to let him die. God asks Jonah in 4:4, “Do you have good reason to be angry?” He asks him in 4:9 if he has good reason to be angry again after a shade he was under withers and dies. Jonah says, “I have good reason to be angry, even to death.” God proceeds to show Jonah that his concern over a dying plant that he didn’t make is nothing compared to the compassion God has over thousands of people that are His very creation. You see, we falsely believe we have rights to dreams, goals, relationships, jobs, recognition, and scores of other things that simply aren’t ours to demand. The death of them can often lead us to despair. But there is such a bigger story going on. We can look at Jonah and say, “Hey, Bud. It’s not about you.” But can we hear it willingly when God asks us to lay down our will and join Him in a bigger story? Are we mad? Would we rather die? Do we have good reason to despair? How would you answer the question that God asks Jonah?
Let’s check out Elisha, the man of God, who was in a city under attack by the enemies of Israel. 2 Kings 6 tells us the enemy had encircled the city with chariots and horses, and Elisha’s attendant was beside himself. All looked lost. Elisha said to him, “Don’t fear, for those with who are with us are more than those who are with them. Then Elisha prayed and said, ‘O Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see.’ And the Lord opened the servant’s eyes, and behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.” Don’t you love it? There was a reality that the servant couldn’t see until God granted it. What appeared to be certain destruction was actually God’s assembled heavenly host ready to do battle in His name. They weren’t alone. God was at work. He always is.
Finally, our last example, though there are countless more. When the two disciples walking to Emmaus after the resurrection of Jesus didn’t recognize him as he walked with them, they explained their despair to him by saying in Luke 24, “But we were hoping that it was He who was going to redeem Israel.” They had staked everything on Jesus being who He said He was, and now He’s dead. The reality was so much bigger than the government overthrow that they had hoped for. He wasn’t just redeeming Israel in His death and resurrection, but all of humanity. It was so much bigger than they realized. The words “But we were hoping” always catch me. Don’t those words fall from our lips so often with an aching or broken heart? When our fantasy doesn’t match our reality, it hurts. When our will is blocked, it hurts. When God asks something hard of us, it hurts. But please know, as evidenced by our Biblical friends, that it’s not for nothing. We are part of a bigger story than just our story. There is a reality going on that is far beyond what we can imagine. All is not as it appears. I pray for all of us the words that Elisha prayed for his servant, “Open our eyes so we can see.”
Between the writing of this letter and it’s completion, sweet Mrs. Grace stepped into the presence of her Savior and the reality of her eternal home. Her dreams have come true. Her faith has become sight. She beholds the Father’s face. Save us a seat, Mrs. Grace. We’ll see you there.
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